Absolute Candor

DVD, Star Trek: Picard S1 (Absolute Candor)

Aussie elf boy Elnor didn't annoy me so much this time. On first viewing it really took me out of it to hear such a pronounced non-American or English accent for an alien character, as much as with Irish Romulan Laris in the first three episodes, thank goodness she's gone! The rationale I've heard from some viewers trying to justify it was that she'd learned Federation Standard from an Irish human, but that doesn't make any sense because of the Universal Translator everyone has, plus Elnor hasn't been raised by Australians here! This time I understood his position much better than I did before - Picard was the only strong male in his young life that showed he cared, then he up and left and never returned for fourteen years, so while I baulked at his stroppy teenage attitude originally, I could understand where he was coming from in his mix of emotions upon seeing what was essentially his grandpa after so long, this time (Zani says Picard got old and he returns that she didn't, a nice reference to the longer lives of Vulcans and Romulans compared with humans, but it didn't make a lot of sense since neither of them look any older than in the flashback scene, Stewart didn't have any de-ageing I could see, other than wearing some Michael Palin suit and hat!). I didn't even think of the accent this time, perhaps because, having seen the whole season I know Elnor a bit better so it's less jarring than it was.

If there is a problem with the character it is that he's supposed to be this superior swordsman of the highest calibre, yet to be such a warrior you'd need total mastery of yourself and your emotions, and he's a moody, stroppy type that comes from a group that let their emotions roam free, so that combination is hard to believe in. It is an interesting situation that this single male character has been brought up by a group of female nuns, the Qowat Milat (another addition to Romulan lore that comes from nowhere), who follow the way of absolute candour, from which the episode title comes: they always speak their mind. It strikes me as not being the most diplomatic creed, especially considering they live on a planet of 'poverty, degradation and ethnic strife' as Picard sums up nicely this 'Relocation Hub,' Vashti, in the Beta Quadrant. At first it seemed to be an entirely Romulan-colonised planet, this location Picard was responsible for bringing them to, but we do hear Terrans also live there and that's where the racial strife comes in as these Romulans, understandably miffed about the destruction of their homeworld and the relative lack of quality this new world offers, see humans as the enemy. Actually, Romulans always saw humans as the enemy so to be degraded into having to accept help from Picard and the Federation would no doubt rankle, and the decade and a half that's passed since the evacuation and colonisation has done nothing to cool the ardour of their bitterness, as we see from the former Romulan senator who has now been reduced to a dusty swordsman hanging about in bars during the day.

This is all the kind of thing that is the most compelling, not galactic mysteries and world-ending portents, but the real day to day hardships and troubles brought on by a natural catastrophe (we assume, it's never been spelled out for certain that Romulus' star suddenly up and went boom from the kind of tampering or tinkering that led to the Klingons' own Praxis disaster or even an outside force attacking the Romulans by setting up the destruction, both of which would seem more plausible than a sun suddenly going supernova!). The Romulan parts of this episode were what really pulled me in, whether it was the scenes with the Qowat Milat where Picard goes to Rivendell to pick up Legolas (and they haven't even tried to hide this 'The Lord of The Rings' stylistic connection - that and 'The Legend of Zelda' seem to be their influences in modern Trek far more than their own past Trek, which is just plain wrong and disturbing), or the politically motivated anger toward him from the inhabitants of Vashti all these years later. For me, this is where the drama is, but we're not allowed to have genuine adult drama with political intrigue and attitudes as we had in older Trek, we're forced down a path of dull 'adventure' and action - while 'Picard' is far more sedate (read: slow and plodding), than 'DSC,' it still fails to pick up the threads that would be of most interest to viewers with some intelligence and desire for something more than simplistic 'Star Wars' space battles, and that's a real problem.

I would much rather have spent three episodes on Vashti, flashing backwards and forwards between the relief effort that settled Romulans on the planet, and Picard's connection to it all, than hanging around on Earth where it felt as close to our own time as you can get without actually being so, or even spending time with Picard's new crew on La Sirena (which I think still goes unnamed in its second episode, only the computer voice credit at the end telling us its name!), which are about as contemporary as you can get. Zani was about the first new character in this series that I was actually interested in, and it's so good to see how Picard actually connected to Romulans on a personal level rather than being this space-based leader of an armada. She had a sort of Guinan aura of knowledge about her - I actually loved all Picard's scenes there, whether he was talking to her or being a grandad to young Elnor and it shows how much he's changed since 'TNG,' from the experience of losing his only nephew Rene (as we heard in 'Generations'), which he must have been reminded of every day living on the vineyard the young boy grew up on, probably seeing him in every corner and every line of the place, not to mention his own brother. It's sad that they never mentioned either character in the season, it would've been right to do so at the vineyard. But we see the joy with which he plays with Elnor (fencing, just as he used to do), or reads to him ('The Three Musketeers' - both a suitable choice for a boy that would be taught swordsmanship, and a fun call-out to Santiago Cabrera's best known role of Aramis in the BBC production, 'The Musketeers' where I know him from), and it's lovely to see positive scenes and Picard in a good moment of his life.

We find out this was where Picard was the day the 11th September attacks happened - that's the equivalent, anyway, the 'synths' destruction of Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars, meaning Picard had to leave. Unfortunately, once again Picard seems to have become a man who doesn't do what he should - just as Raffi previously accused him of never getting in touch in all those years, it appears Picard didn't think of Elnor or find him a new home as he planned to. Zani and her warrior women didn't do any better, maybe it was advantageous to have a man about the house (a teen, anyway), and never got around to rehoming him either. So you can see the origins of Elnor's spiky attitude and you have to feel a little sorry for him, even if he has been given the opportunity to learn so much in the martial arts. Though he has much knowledge and skill he doesn't have any wisdom to go with it, so I do like that Picard takes him on as much for his sake as for the quest's. Elnor needs a male figure to guide him, to help him progress and become complete, and you can see this is like a teen being taken from a broken home - I can't help thinking of Odo and the adolescent Jem'Hadar he tried to instruct towards a peaceful life against his nature, or even Picard having to deal with Jono, a human boy that had been raised by aliens in 'Suddenly Human' and you can see the Trek storytelling potential, only I don't feel the promise ever really came through. This personal level is what Trek should be about instead of wild quests and criminal gangs, but they always aim far too big and miss the juicy possibilities before them.

Something else I really approved of was Picard's anger at the senseless killing of the ex-senator, really giving Elnor a dressing down for his wanton killing of the man (though it was unhelpful of the Qowat Milat to allow Picard to wander around without protection as they must have known the rumbling mood of the place). I suppose, with the martial skill of the teen he could have chosen to only wing him, perhaps cut off his sword hand or wound him so he was too concerned with the pain to continue, but instead we get the most gory scene yet in the series, there's a flash of the Elvish blade (…), we see green blood seeping from the Romulan's neck, and then much more tastefully shown from behind, the head slides off the front. I'm glad it wasn't revelled in as some of the gore was in 'DSC,' but at the same time it still is a bit much, more suited to the 'Highlander' franchise than Trek, but as I say, at least Picard expresses his disgust with Elnor. That whole confrontation was a little more complicated to accept - it's good to see an elderly Picard, sword in hand again, though I wish we'd had the impression he'd kept himself fighting fit over the years, perhaps a session on the vineyard with a holographic fencing partner in a previous episode might have restored some of the character's physical dignity when it's been more concerned with presenting the run-down nature of his existence. I think it far more likely that someone of Picard's quality would have kept his mind and body in peak condition even at his age, but that's not the direction they went. The confrontation reminded me of a similar one in 'Firstborn' where Worf is attacked by a couple of Klingons on another colony world, but I'm sure there is an episode where Picard fights Klingons, I just can't remember which!

He shows sense in casting down the sword that had been given him, but I can't help wishing he'd been able to acquit himself since swordsmanship had been established long ago as being an expertise of his. But he is ninety-odd and Romulans are stronger than humans, and he was surrounded, and… lots of excuses. The real point of it is for Elnor to swoop in and show off his abilities, which I suppose is fair enough, but it does raise the point of why they carry swords here. It could be a weapon of the wilderness and in this 'Star Wars' frontier town they use swords as tool and protection in equal measure. Or it could be a cultural attitude - I know in the books' universe the Romulans are supposed to be really into ceremonial blades and all that, but that's never been taken up in official canon. I don't mind if they did integrate some of that, but just to throw it in that Romulans use swords in the days of Phasers or Disruptors is strange and begged explanation. It really needed some setup, maybe just a line about the importance of blades to Romulan culture, after all there's still so little we know about the race, but in keeping with 'DSC's reticence to really explore cultures, they don't seem to want to put off younger viewers by adding richness to the universe: they don't want to properly explore cultures, they don't explore characters in sufficient depth and they're intent on contemporary characterisations and out of place action, so you can see why someone like myself who loves those things about Trek would be vastly disappointed in the modern versions we've been presented with.

Indeed, whenever we cut back to La Sirena and the characters there it takes me right out of seeing this series as Trek. We have Jurati irritating Captain Rios with her chatter as much as she does me - her inane observations such as complaining how boring space travel is immediately took me back to young Captain Kirk in 'Star Trek Beyond' where he's finding it all so monotonous! Where's the sense of adventure and the joy of exploration? Well, there isn't any because all they're doing is going on a trip to get somewhere so they can find someone who might be able to tell them where someone else is so they can save her because she might be in danger… Put like that it really doesn't sound a very compelling reason to venture out into space so maybe Jurati was right, but was actually commenting on the series itself! You'd think a scientist, as she's supposed to be, would have found all sorts of things to interest her in the ship - she's into artificial life so why isn't she interrogating each of the holographic personnel that Rios has populating his ship (we get another two this time, the Emergency Hospitality and Tactical Holograms - if the ETH is there to operate the weapons console then why not simply have the computer do it, what's the logic in expending energy in creating a 3D matrix of a human to push the buttons, it doesn't make sense?), or, since she wasn't doing any physical research as it had all been shut down by Starfleet, maybe she could carry on with whatever theoretical studies and paperwork she was doing at the Daystrom Institute in the first place?

The characterisations aren't really worked out and she couldn't seem less than a curious scientist if she tried. She becomes almost as annoying as Ensign Tilly with her badgering of Rios when he's trying to read a book, while he comes across as an introspective, thoughtful man who has hidden depths, even if he does continue to puff away on cigars - couldn't they at least toss us a bone and say that it's only an affectation, it's a holo-cigar that he just likes to have in his mouth? Then at least it would be a bit more palatable. Raffi, too, is as casual and unappealing as ever, though I did like the moment all three come into Picard's Holodeck recreation of his sitting room back at the vineyard, because with him at the desk it was almost like his Ready Room on the Enterprise and the others felt like subordinates in front of him. But again, they drop in the most extreme swearing for no reason whatsoever other than because modern people seem to think it's funny or cool to spit out the most offensive sexual epithets, going against the vast majority of Trek attitudes to the profane. I was also put off when I thought Michael Chabon was name-dropping himself in as the Emergency Hospitality Hologram (hospitality is an emergency?), says 'your Mr. Chebon supplied the holo-scans,' to Picard. It's a bit too cheeky and way to early to be doing things like that, but it turned out he was talking of Mr. Zhaban, which would make sense - but I wonder now if Chabon deliberately made the name phonetically like his own…

Once again we have story elements that simply don't make sense, but are necessary for the structure of what they're trying to do: build up this crew around Picard, episode by episode. I don't mind that they've introduced the cast piecemeal, I just wish we'd got to know them better. But the real problem is the sense of urgency in getting to Freecloud, where, by the way, they don't even know for certain that Bruce Maddox will be waiting, so it's a pretty slim thread to hang the whole mission upon, but aside from that, Picard feels it's okay to head off to an entirely different planet, Vashti, so he can get a swordsman as protector. Part of it is understandable, he feels the odds are long and we have another hint of his impending death as he wants to go because he may never pass that way again, so there's more setup for the end of the season and a sense of needed closure in his life. To return to his rationale for not getting the old crew involved: they'd be only too willing to risk their lives and careers for him, and yet he is willing to take people who are a bit flimsy and flaky and doesn't mind sacrificing them, so it's not a good explanation and the writers really didn't think that through, they should have come up with a far better reason why Picard's closest friends and allies don't join in. At least Raffi does point out they're supposed to be getting to Freecloud as quickly as possible, every moment could mean risk to Soji. Shouldn't Picard have sent out feelers in every direction across all his networks of people he's known over the years in order to track down this android woman? But he's adamant he needs to go to Vashti, and at least he does show who's boss on this mission, Raffi having to step down and accept that's what's going to happen, and she seems to be the sort of person who needs to be told!

Picard looks suspiciously guilty of being motivated by a desire to make up for the past again - he knows he should have sorted out Elnor years ago and just never did, so you can sympathise with the young man's anger. All he wants is for Picard to say he came back exclusively for him and because he wants him and would trust him with his life, which he clearly does, but he makes out that he needs someone of his skill and it's really only Zani that suggests Elnor should be the one to go with him for Elnor's own sake. Another major misstep for Picard, his diplomatic skills have really gone on the slide, and this isn't the only time in the episode this happens. We can always put it down to the anomalies in his brain that are slowly going to kill him. The other time Picard shows a distinct lack of judgement is when, having returned to Vashti and found it far from the happy, hospitable place he left all those years ago when Romulans would run up to greet him, their champion of the Federation, rather than show understanding and try to come to terms with the xenophobia aimed at humans, he has a few minutes to kill until La Sirena can pick him up through the shield net of the planet and decides to cause a ruckus. He pulls off the 'Romulans Only' sign at a cafe and walks over it, then proceeds to enter and demands service. For a lifelong diplomat famous for his skills in that department he shows a marked lack of judgement, showing he can't control the emotions he's feeling which is most unlike him. It would have made more sense to keep a low profile no matter how angered he was by such treatment, but it also looks a little arrogant since it's because of him they feel this way.

There are tantalising hints of what has happened to the Romulans, at least the ones on this planet, as Zani tells him of something calling itself the 'Romulan Rebirth Movement' and we have to assume the symbols worn on Vashti represent this new way. Unfortunately we don't get any more detail and once we're off this planet it's all forgotten and moved on from, when this was another thread dangling that could have made for an episode in itself. It's frustrating to be given bits and bobs about Romulan society or the state of the Federation in this time period, but never afforded time to explore any of it, preferring mysteries and two-dimensional villainy to suffice. Is it because it's a first season, traditionally when Trek's writers have trouble getting a handle on the characters they've created? I doubt it, nothing works the way it did in Trek's twenty-six episode a season, mostly episodic days, and in terms of the number of episodes modern Trek had done to this point we'd still be in Season 2 of a series in old money when you think this is only episode thirty-three since 'DSC' began the revival. There are other ideas thrown higgledy-piggledy into the story, such as the 'Fenris Rangers' (rangers? You mean like in 'The Lord of The Rings' or even 'Babylon 5'? This is getting tiresome now, stop nicking stuff from other franchises and concentrate on Trek tropes and styles!), whom we hear are supposed to look after law and order in this region - so who owns this area of space in the Beta Quadrant?

I always worry a little bit when the Beta Quadrant is brought into conversation. It's all very well having Sulu off on the Excelsior exploring this area, and we know that both Romulan and Klingon space is supposed to be in it, at least partially, but it gets a little confusing, most obviously when everything was so centred on the Alpha Quadrant during the Dominion threat from the Gamma Quadrant. Why would Klingons and especially Romulans care so much if the majority of their empires were in another quadrant entirely? Perhaps 'DS9' could be accused, uncharacteristically, of dumbing down by focusing on Alpha when we know Beta is there, but unless you're going off into Beta for a long-term mission of exploration it feels like something to avoid for the sake of confusion in the casual audience - I know, not something I'd usually care about, but this series and 'DSC' are both so geared towards a modern style to appeal to modern viewers and it doesn't make sense to complicate and confuse at the same time. But anyway, if the Romulans aren't masters of the space around Vashti, who is? Criminality, it seems, another impression of 'Star Wars,' lawless bands and organisations. Sure, we've had them before (the Orion Syndicate for one), but in general, organised crime seemed like something dealt with by the major powers and it doesn't feel like we're out in deep space since they've just come straight from Earth in the previous episode, even if everything is in Beta (Freecloud, Vashti, the Borg Cube).

I didn't catch the dialogue on who the guy flying around in an antique Romulan Bird-of-Prey was, but he sounded like a crime boss. Okay, this is one thing I'm mixed on: the BOP. It does make perfect sense that a Romulan society fragmented by the loss of the homeworld, and whom may have lost many of their fleet (not sure why since they had years to prepare for evac), may have unearthed some old museum piece as a form of minor protection from mercenaries, and might just have a vintage vessel from the 23rd Century. I can give them that. At the same time when I first saw this in the trailer for the series it smacked of stunt 'casting' - show as many Trek hallmarks as you can to reel in the viewers. It seems to me it was thrown in only as a marketing ploy since it has no bearing on the story whatsoever and the fact it's an antique BOP has no bearing on anything. When 'DSC' was busily destroying the visual aesthetics (and everything else that made it what it was), of 'TOS' and its 23rd Century it's incredibly ironic that a sister series set well over a century later would be the one to bring back such an iconic ship from 'TOS.' Now I'm not complaining it breaks canon or anything like that, and in fact 'DSC' would have been if they'd shown a Romulan ship, really, so it at least makes more sense than if it had shown up there, but it's just another example of the topsy-turvy overturning of Trek's reality and history. They didn't even present it well enough in the short space confrontation we see, no majestic shots of the BOP's painted underside and before long one of its wings has been sheared off by Seven of Nine's little vessel. Don't they have shields?

That goes for La Sirena and Seven's vessel, too: I didn't see any noticeable shields and that energy bubble fizzing into vision is an integral hallmark of the Trek visual style that sets it apart from other sci-fi, so it really galls me that neither 'DSC' nor 'Picard' seem to have that (other than grid-like energy covering gaps, like on the damaged Borg Cube or in that episode where Burnham has to talk the computer into opening the forcefield so she can escape the Brig). I will give credit for the beautiful Phaser beams screaming out in the battle, so much more Trekky than the bolts we tend to see nowadays, so they do get some points at least, even if it seems they designed La Sirena to be a 'Star Wars' fighter, banking and weaving, so different from a proper starship that has to rely on shields and power levels as well as manoeuvring tactics for survival. But the sequence does give us Seven, at least, even if, as I had suspected as soon as I saw the 'Special Guest Star' credit in the opening titles for Jeri Ryan, she only shows up for a few seconds at the very end (and in an ill-judged 'comedy' introduction where she swoons to the deck in a thump of slapstick), just like Spock at the conclusion of 'Unification I' on 'TNG.' But Jeri Ryan! On Trek again! It was too amazing a development not to have a little flutter of excitement, at least on my first viewing - who would ever have thought this actress and her character would ever be brought back, in spite of the failed attempt to get her into 'Nemesis' all those years ago. Sadly, my joy at seeing her again was tempered by the knowledge of the depressing, miserable creature this writing team turned her into, to the point that I wished she hadn't come back if they were only going to misuse her as they did. But that's for another review.

It's not just Ryan returning to Trek for 'Picard,' but Jonathan Frakes, too. He'd already directed a couple of 'DSC' episodes in its first two seasons, but having the actor who played Will Riker come back to work with Patrick Stewart was what really mattered, even if he wasn't yet squeezing into Will's uniform again. That's really all I can say about his involvement so far, as there was nothing about the episode's directing that stood out to me, but then every episode of modern Trek pretty much looks the same to me because the much more rigid style of old Trek was the place where you noticed more expressive or expansive shots and could see a personal style, whereas they're all so free to do what they want, as long as it's mainly with a lot of movement (much less so on 'Picard,' thankfully), that it all just blends together, ironically. But still, seeing the names Stewart, Frakes and Ryan in a Trek production together is something special and, as the episodes tend to do thanks to the cinema screen presentation, it did seem quite similar to a film - I was thinking that from the start as we get a nice move through the Romulan township, with young Elnor stealing a piece of fruit and it called to mind 'Insurrection' and the building of the Ba'ku village set with all those people and buildings, so I will say that it was an expensive-looking location and as always, it's great to be outside in natural light.

I could have wished that we'd seen at least a few Romulans with more pronounced foreheads and a discernible 'V' in the centre rather than merely slight bumps on the side of the forehead, but we did have plenty of proper Romulan haircuts which were long enough to have masked deeper indented features so I was broadly impressed with the look (the old grey-haired guy sitting at a table which we get a closeup of looked like Sarek!). If I was confused by who owns the space around Vashti (another Vash - Jhat Vash, now this, will we ever see the 'TNG' character of that name, I wonder?), I was more confused about the planet itself. Does it have a government, are the Qowat Milat, who claim to patrol the roads and waterways, also responsible for its justice and societal structure because it didn't feel that way? We hear of 'Central Station' and can presume that's the location of global power who control the planetary defence system, but why wouldn't they give Picard official permission to land or beam down? It would make sense if they all feel negative towards him, I suppose, but then I was having trouble working out who the ethnic strife was between, it clearly wasn't a north and south Romulus issue (bumps and flatheads), nor racial (dark and light skins sit together), so the 'Romulans Only' sign would suggest it's between them and outsiders, but then why would outsiders be living on a Romulan colony anyway? It's either too briefly explained or not at all, something the series has problems with from day one as the plotting is laid out confusingly and important information can be lost in modern-sounding jargon.

It was lovely to hear the traditional Romulan greeting again, "Jolan Tru," one of the very few things about the race we ever got previously, where everything was kept so secret. Picard beaming down to this place was reminiscent of his visit to Romulus disguised as a Romulan in 'Unification,' so while there were plenty of genuine callbacks to lore, it was also nice to see some possibly unintended parallels. It's difficult to see how life became so miserable on the planet, what is it about life there that has brought the people so low, or is it just a reflection on the power and status they used to hold in the galaxy and no longer do, leading to the kind of frustration and bullying shown by the ex-senator? Although the Federation is supposed to be a post-scarcity society, that doesn't necessarily hold true for Romulans now that they're forced to scratch out a living as the refugees of the galaxy. Maybe they don't have access to technology like Replicators on these far-flung planets, forced into farming the land as serfs, against the image of a powerful spacefaring race that had been in a strong position as a force in the galaxy. But surely not everything is worse, they don't live in a police state any more, presumably the Tal Shiar would be far too stretched to have presences in every colony, so there must be more freedom, something I'd have liked to hear talked about as we forget that Romulus was quite a closed society like China, or somewhere between there and North Korea, but not to the extreme.

The claims of the ex-senator that Picard and his Federation's only intent was to scatter, confuse and divide his people, seem utterly ridiculous since this planet seems to be at least one of the success stories, that they managed to move so many people here to a suitable planet, but again, it's only the vitriol of bitterness that has had no outlet and stirred people up, much like the enforced lockdowns endured for months last year led to people's hidden sense of resentment boiling over and going on rampages to tear down monuments and that sort of thing, which you'd think would be a behaviour of centuries past, not the modern day, and shows that we don't change, those hoping for a Trek-like future where humanity has pulled itself out of all negative feeling is a pipe-dream, though one that is enjoyable to watch and satisfying to explore, and which is more needed in 'Picard' than ever, so it's a shame too little of that utopia survives here. There are things which are said in the episode that call attention to some of the problems, but while it's good to show they recognise them, they also don't explain them. As I mentioned before, the place of swords in Romulan society remains a mystery, especially when one of the ex-senator's friends pulls a Disruptor necessitating immediate beam-up. What he said was true, a sword can't protect against a gun, they aren't lightsabers! And that makes you wonder, why carry swords if they also have Disruptors, and what good is all that skill the Qowat Milat spend years mastering if all it would take is a Disruptor to burn them up!

Elnor's arrogant attitude that his saying 'choose to live' to an adversary is the only chance they have as no one could defeat a Qowat Milat, looks even more so when you think about energy weapons versus a sword. If they hadn't beamed up then he probably would have been killed, so it pulls apart the very tenets of this 'warrior nun' organisation! It turns out that Elnor isn't even an actual member since he's a male and it's a female-only club (should have had a sign saying 'Females Only' for Picard to tear down and walk over!), which is fair enough, but then he's treated as if he is a member for the rest of the series and takes his vow of binding himself to a cause very seriously (at least until he decides he's had enough and he's found a better cause later in the season, which made him seem even more unreliable!), though the idea that they only take on a hopeless cause was ridiculous and clearly only put in to seem more mythological and wondrous, as well as putting desperation into Picard's mission! Another oddness highlighted by a character is Jurati's reaction to warrior nuns, finding the concept bizarre, and she's not alone! They're trying to make them more like Elves from 'The Lord of The Rings' it seems, and we needed more context than Picard reeling off a few facts about them being the most feared enemy of the Tal Shiar (which makes sense - a police state would be against any religious sect because they would have recourse to a higher authority and wouldn't necessarily fall in line with suppression of rights), although how he knows who the Tal Shiar fear is questionable, unless his housekeepers discussed it.

The question of a free energy economy, or lack of it, comes up again with Rios claiming the Fenris Rangers (we're not told who they are, what they represent, how they came to be, or anything at all), don't have the resources to keep up with the 'chaos' in this area, but if Replicators and such are so available why would this be the case? Rios even suggests a cash gift being the way to get Picard down to Vashti when they ignore Picard's request - where would Rios get cash, what would it consist of (Romulan money?), and what would a Federation citizen know about it? If they at least mentioned Latinum that would be something, but if you came to 'Picard' never having seen previous 24th Century series', you'd assume things were the same as in the 23rd when in 'TOS' payment and monetary worth, and that kind of thing does get mentioned quite a few times! At least the uniqueness of the Qowat Milat and their 'total communication of emotion without filter' is an alien concept, even if it comes from an established race and might have worked better if these were aliens who had trained up Elnor to be like them, as that would make a good basis for an alien race, but it didn't bother me they were Romulan, they get the sense of alienation of Elnor by having him grow up among a bunch of women his whole life rather than having that necessary Father figure, and it does make for a bit of fun and outsider nature in the series when he constantly gets things wrong - it's the classic character, from Spock to Data, Odo to the EMH and Seven, perhaps Phlox, maybe Saru (though the latter two are hardly classics in the way the others are), so it's good to have that back again so strongly.

As much as all the Romulan stuff attracted, the shipboard scenes and the Borg Cube detracted from the experience, dropping it down a few points, sadly. I must say the happy harp music playing over Soji and Narek's scenes together appealed, even if they didn't and suggested a fun, relaxed time at odds with what was really happening. It's good Soji finally starts asking serious questions over who Narek is and how he can have such free rein on this classified and heavily secured artefact - trouble is, it's a bit late to be having reservations and though the music was good, it also kept a jaunty theme to this confusing dynamic. Soji's quite happy to jump into having fun with Narek, her vulnerability of trust very clear, yet suspicion of him is also starting to stir up so he takes her for a skidding session in one of the Cube's shiny corridors… What? It seemed like it was all supposed to make us think how cute they are, 'young love' and all that, and what fun Narek is, or was it a tactic to stop her questioning him? Soji breaks away when he gives her a few facts about herself (such as she supposedly came to the Beta Quadrant in 2396 aboard the Ellison, perhaps named for Harlan, yet there was no record of her being aboard), but I found them to be quite uncomfortable. But that was nothing compared to the disturbing return of Narissa, Narek's lustful sister, once again delving into areas Trek hasn't gone to before because of its depravity, and not what you want to see. It's only there to show what evil villains they are, but it's not necessary to have such innuendo to establish character, and they end up both seeming very simplistic and utterly dull as characters.

If we didn't know for sure what the plan was, then we do now: kill all synthetic life. Why? Still not clear, but they believe Soji has her own plan as this fabled Destroyer, and maybe she does, and we're reminded that Ramdha believes Soji to be this, some mythical being that will end everything. Best not remind us of that silly plot development because just when we thought we were in for a more character-driven series, a little closer to Trek's style, it's back to the modern tropes of galaxy-ending peril and mythical terrors. Ugh! Even worse, apparently the logs Soji reviews were from some 'talk show' - can you imagine Romulans having talk shows, it's just silly and contemporary and adds to the general impression of some other series than Trek. I think the Shaenor were all Zhat Vash, which is why they appeared to have lost their minds when the Borg assimilated them, except it had already happened on the planet we see later in the season, at least that's the impression I'm getting, and would explain why they were mad, though it wasn't down to the Borg, it was from them seeing the future or whatever happened as we found out later. Don't meddle with such things, may it be a lesson. At least the supposed tarot cards of the previous episode may actually just be the Romulan equivalent of playing cards after all, as we see people having some kind of game with them on Vashti. Let's hope it was as harmless as that and not some occult stuff.

As is often true, we get plenty of little nods to the past, such as Data's sacrifice being brought up again when Picard tries to tell his story to Elnor and the young Romulan remembers Data had an orange cat called Spot, something that seemed to be pulled out of nowhere as a fact he would remember, but also was somehow endearing in that he cared about the animal Data owned and that was the first thing that came to him, as well as a desire to see such alien creatures. I was delighted to hear an actual class of ship spoken of, when the ex-senator talks of the evacuation aboard 'Wallenberg-class' transports - it's so rare for us to get technical details on these modern series' as if they don't care for such things, so that stood out to me. Wasn't so keen on seeing the little Romulan medical drone floating about on the Cube as I just don't like such things in Trek unless for a specific reason, but at least it was less intrusive than what they introduced on 'DSC.' When I first saw it I didn't realise it was a small thing in the same room as Soji and Narek as it was framed in the doorway and looked as if it was moving along the corridor outside and only when it began scanning the body did I get the visual connection it was in the same room! And Jurati brings us another tantalising reference to the warrior race when she says all Rios has got for holo-programs are Klingon opera - therein lies a story, hints Rios, but we don't get to hear it, nor do we get a single Klingon all season, probably the only season in all of Trek not to have at least one (pictures of Worf don't count!).

I was confused in the scene where Picard heard about the attack on Mars, because he carries a combadge with him (film-era, which was great - now we know that design lasted into the 2380s, even if the uniform didn't), but seems to touch something on his ear, though he could have been holding the combadge in his hand, it wasn't clear. I'm not keen on them beaming people up when they're in motion - for one thing why did Picard need to walk anywhere if he's being beamed out anyway, and I prefer the formality of needing to stand still, though I concede that Transporter technology could easily have advanced in those years to make such things possible, I just don't like it. And it's a shame we never got any context for how Seven and Picard knew each other, at least I don't recall anything from other episodes. It could have been the Borg connection, that they had both suffered assimilation and been part of the hive mind, or it could be they had something to do with each other when she returned from the Delta Quadrant, a period it's a real shame not to have been able to see on screen. For that matter I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't have adopted her human name, Annika Hansen, upon returning to Earth, it would be the obvious way to begin a new life, especially as she was beginning to lose the Borg implants. That was the first sign, though I didn't know it, of Seven being misused by this series, showing that she'd actually regressed rather than progressed: as we saw towards the end of 'Voyager' she had smaller facial implants than here, and the direction of intent for her was clear back then, another example of the dystopian future this series hijacked utopia with, much to Trek's detriment.

As I look back on this episode I liked a lot more of if than I didn't, but it was a largely forgettable entry and all I could remember before seeing it again was the introduction of Elnor and Seven, completing Picard's ragtag crew, and being on the Romulan planet, which shows it didn't stick with me. This time I almost enjoyed it more than original viewing, certain parts irked less, but the annoying (Jurati; Raffi), or passive (Rios), crewmembers didn't help and those things I disliked dragged down what otherwise would have been one of the better episodes so far, what with forced foul language, gore, and poor villains. There were flashes of what the series might have been in other hands and it did engage when it was dealing with Picard's backstory in trying to assist the Romulans, but there wasn't enough of that, nor sufficient depth to help it overcome the downsides. If not for a few things I might be calling this the best yet (a low bar, all the same), but I can't, and part of that is watching without the hope of improvement, knowing what's going to happen.

**

Patterns of Force (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (Patterns of Force) (2)

We had the Roman one, and we had the gangster one, now it's the turn of the Nazis to showcase the negative sides of Roddenberry's parallel planet development theory. Or is it? Because this isn't strictly a progression of Earth history, it's an interference, and from someone who should have known better, not just because he was from the Federation, but because he was an historian! If this is the lesson of the episode, that even learned students of history can make the very same mistakes which they studied, it's a bleak one, as you'd like to think those steeped in what goes around and what comes around would be the last kind to fail to learn. Perhaps that's the point, that with the knowledge of how events have played out before, it can actually make people more arrogant to believe they know better and think they're able to adapt a flawed system into one that works. The trouble with this episode is that it feels more like Desilu's other big series of the late 1960s, 'Mission: Impossible,' and I know because in recent years I've been watching through that series: the team have to go in and find out what happened to a guy from their side, either to kill or rescue him depending on what he's done/has been done to him. They wear stock costumes, get captured and cobble together an escape plan then find out what was really going on and thwart the real power behind the figurehead on the throne - it even takes place on sets that series used and has the same light, bantering tone!

I'm not quite sure at what point I realised this was going to be more of a conventional TV episode than a conventionally unconventional Trek story, but I had the impression left from previous viewings it wasn't one of the high points of the season. There was one moment relatively early that impressed, which was the clever trick the Zeons use to test Kirk and Spock's veracity once they've escaped from Nazi HQ with Isak (whom I thought was called Esoq, which sounded a lot like Esoqq the Chalnoth of the 'TNG' episode 'Allegiance'). I was wondering how the Nazis had been able to track down this hideaway of the underground, but that question was soon answered by the fact that they hadn't, it was all a ruse, and a clever one, too. Apart from that the episode didn't impress. I think it was partly due to the jokey tone, there isn't the horror of this recreation of a terrible period in Earth history (one again created through involvement of humans, though unlike the USS Horizon's inadvertent effect, John Gill's was deliberate, though with the best intentions), and it felt much more like 'Star Trek IV' than a serious Trek examination. But of course this came before 'IV' so that had its genesis in episodes like this, 'The Trouble With Tribbles' and 'A Piece of The Action.' The latter two had been highlights of the season so I can imagine them trying to recreate that success, only attempting it with Nazism probably wasn't the best (or final), solution they should have gone with…

It's not that Nazi stories don't work on Trek, the Cardassians themselves are probably the closest analogy to a Fascist state in Trek terms, and on Ekos we get the same public broadcast screens that the reptilian race would be seen to employ on Cardassia to spread its propaganda and sense of Big Brother control - scarily we now have such things in our own town centres these days which you can just imagine being turned from their advertising uses to more sinister ones depending on who controls them in future. But there would be actual Nazi stories in future Trek, too. While this episode is the parallel development origin (plus outside assistance), 'Voyager' did a two-parter with them in a simulation ('The Killing Game' which used the same building for their Nazi HQ), as did 'Enterprise' ('Storm Front'), which was time travel/an alternate timeline, so the face of evil has always been a draw for the writers. And it's not a bad setup, going down to a planet (though Kirk's qualms about both Captain and First Officer beaming down to a dangerous mission together, exhibited in the previous episode, were altogether absent), in quest of a cultural observer, something we saw in later Trek (notably 'Who Watches The Watchers?' on 'TNG' and 'Insurrection'), but they didn't seem very prepared other than wearing the correct attire for the period (Spock sporting an ear-covering hat again, just like the one in 'The City On The Edge Of Forever'), and carrying an emergency subcutaneous transponder in case they couldn't talk when the Enterprise must beam them up.

You'd think this transponder would be standard issue and everyone would carry it at all times, but here I think there's more evidence the Federation and Starfleet value personal privacy and they aren't going to be tracked at all times, even for the sake of ease and security, in contrast to our current societal direction of travel to more and more personal tracking, observation and data holding. In the end it became a gimmick that, like something out of 'Mission: Impossible' could be used for them to escape from an impossible situation, and while I like the use of surrounding materials (the metal slat of the bunk), it was too convenient and didn't look very realistic that some tiny transponders could somehow direct the heat or light of a bulb into a beam that could burn through the metal lock in seconds! There's also something undignified about seeing Spock with his shirt off - you expect it from Kirk, he often (though not as often, certainly in this season, than you'd think), had his ripped or went around bare-chested (see 'The Gamesters of Triskelion'), but to defrock a Vulcan is like a priest going shirtless, just inappropriate to the dignity of the position. At least they continued the idea of Spock's green blood as the lashes he sustains to the back are of the correct colour as opposed to Kirk's red weals.

Along with the wry tone that Kirk seems to employ, we also have Spock being more naive than usual - when he's using Kirk as a ladder to reach the lightbulb in the cell he keeps asking questions of his Captain's analogies while Kirk just wants him to finish up because he's standing on his whipped back and it's painful. And there's at least one other moment when Kirk actually tells him not to be naive, which doesn't work altogether - are we supposed to believe Spock is really of this mindset or is he teasing Kirk? Kirk himself, as he has done in a few episodes this season, especially towards the end, is much more Shatnerish, the way the character was portrayed in the films. It's just an observation but it did seem that as the season has been coming to a close the actor and character have become closer, perhaps because, as Director of 'Star Trek VI,' Nicholas Meyer observed, when Shatner was tired he overacted less, and it could also be that as time goes on actors relax more and allow themselves to come out in the character as we see with any long-running role, especially at the tail end of a season. It's not a bad thing, but Kirk and Spock bantering away in such surroundings, while it's supposed to be a fun, upbeat adventure, didn't quite suit the subject matter, nor help the episode to feel like serious sci-fi, it's closer to the caricature the films often took as their basis for reality (especially in the Kelvin Timeline series).

Even Spock's powers are used rather perfunctorily here, whether he's dropping Nazi's with the nerve pinch or doing a 'mind probe' as Kirk calls it when he offhandedly suggests doing it on the drugged Gill. There isn't the mystery and intensity we usually expect from such a meld, the drama of the moment overrun by the story's need to get information. And there isn't a lot of drama in the majority of the episode, aside from the scene I mentioned when they're 'found' in the underground (again, it seemed very unlikely the Zeons wouldn't find their escape suspicious, turning up in Nazi uniforms having saved one of their people, but that only increased my respect for how well the twist worked), even down to the lack of recognition the Chairman or the guards on the door exhibit when they show up in the same uniforms again, having escaped from the building only a little time before! In fact it was downright ludicrous when Chairman Eneg finds them in the utility room which McCoy has beamed down to, fails to recognise these escaped impersonators and buys the story they tell about 'Colonel' McCoy being a bit worse for drink! They do at least mention the strangeness - is it supposed to be an indication he was actually a Zeon, or a sympathiser at least, deliberately ignoring the signs? He shows restraint in terms of calling off the beatings earlier and then at the end he's quick to show support for a new regime that avoids brutality, but the episode isn't written well enough to make it clear, and a bit more development might have worked wonders.

It had been a long season, however, and if William Shatner was tired enough to be more himself in his role, then maybe the writers were also becoming a little jaded, which might explain the variable quality of these last few episodes, because this really wasn't one of the more worthwhile or dramatic examples. It doesn't even have a very well written ending as, for a start, the Nazi regime is simply ended - how did they know the Chairman, who was happy for the crew to go so that they can 'do the rest' of what was needed, wasn't actually plotting to take power anyway and saw this as his opportunity? It's all a little too pat, no discussion of the guilt of the masses for how they'd treated the Zeons or not resisted Nazi oppression, just a lighthearted chat on the Bridge of the Enterprise as they discuss the society, turning into a quarrel between Spock and McCoy on the quality of humanity. It's supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be amusing, but in common with the rest of the episode it merely comes across as out of place. And so the image of the story is one of iconic visuals (Kirk, Spock and McCoy in Nazi uniform), but little substance. Even the whole motivation of John Gill was extremely hard to swallow - that this historian, one of Kirk's own instructors at the Academy, thought he'd bring the people together by transforming their society into the 'most efficient' in human history, in spite of the genocidal motivation of it, thinking he could take the useful parts and ditch the rest, was utterly bizarre, especially coming from a Federation official who knew very well how important the Prime Directive is!

If there was one episode that shows non-interference as a wise move, this is the one, but only because it's such a ridiculous situation. In fairness, it could be suggested the Federation is still fairly young, just over a century old, and they didn't even have a non-interference policy to begin with (see 'Enterprise' and 'A Piece Of The Action'), and Gill was an old man, plus I don't think we know how long he'd been there, so he certainly wouldn't have heard of what happened with the cultural contamination of the Sigma Iotians - it's possible they didn't know many examples of their directive being misapplied and he thought he knew better. In any case, he gets his reward, a magazine-full of bullets (how did that broadcast work? We see Gill on a screen, but he's also behind a curtain, so where did the broadcasting camera go?), so it's not like he got off scot-free, but for someone who was more interested in causes and motivations (like my own great history teacher, Mr. Rafter, whom I remember writing on the board 'MOTIVE'), rather than dates and events, you'd expect him to have been more sensible. Then again, even Kirk is close to breaking the code when he sees Isak being mistreated in the street and wants to go to his aid, Mr. Spock the one to remind him of non-interference.

While Kirk and Spock are given the lion's share of the episode, the other characters are left behind, mostly literally, with only McCoy beaming down near the end, and Scotty being left in command at the beginning - Sulu doesn't even appear, so I wonder if they wrote this unsure if he'd be back (though the previous episode showed him on the Bridge again)! McCoy's introduction throws more fuel on the fire of whether starships of this era can replicate goods or whether they're manufactured. From this episode it would seem the fanciful creation of a uniform by Replicator in 'DSC' Season 1 may not be as inappropriate as it seemed since the Doctor complains the boots of his Colonel's uniform are too tight and the computer got the measurements wrong. That would suggest it was made by computer, though it could also mean the design was from the computer, but it was actually put together by the Quartermaster (there was one reference in an episode). But it could also be said it would be unlikely a person could put an accurate historical outfit together in the mere minutes it seemed before McCoy beamed down so that weights it towards a computer creation of some kind.

Good use was made of the black and white footage played on the public screen - although they mistakenly showed a very brief clip of Hitler (since Gill is supposed to be the Fuhrer, there would be no Adolf, this isn't a parallel reality!), it's a blink and you'd miss it. The clever thing is using archive footage of a rocket going up and having the announcer say that a Zeon space attack was repulsed, when of course the real footage is just of a planetary rocket, there wouldn't have been any space weapons! We hear Kirk refer to USS again as United Space Ship, and use is made of the upper screens surrounding the Bridge once more to display a photo of John Gill, reminding us they aren't actually pretty pictures, but useable monitors. I also liked that though Spock was able to fix a dismantled Communicator, he had to use the parts from both to do it. And finally, when Spock rattles off his list of dangerous humans from history, the last name must have been made up as I've never heard of 'Lee Kwan,' fitting with their usual tactic of including a fictional future name in with the ones we do know.

Talking of known names, there are several actors who'd had roles in other episodes: most famous would be Skip Homeier (who died in 2017), as Melakon - he'd go on to be the far more interesting Dr. Sevrin in Season 3's 'The Way To Eden.' Bart LaRue had played a similar newscaster in 'Bread and Circuses,' among other voice roles before and after. Ralph Maurer as the SS Lieutenant had been in 'The Return of the Archons.' Ed McCready, an SS Trooper, had several roles, as did 'First Trooper' Paul Baxley, probably best known for Freeman in 'The Trouble With Tribbles.' And that's about all there is to be said about this one, it's not ripe for much discussion or features much to speculate about, which shows up other reasons why it's one of the weaker episodes of the season. Using stock buildings and uniforms may have worked for 'Mission: Impossible' (and that series wasn't a patch on 'TOS'), but it didn't go down so well here. It's not the surroundings that matter so much, though, as the acting, writing and plotting, and also the thought they could have done a truly fascinating story with the pieces, but didn't.

**

Return To Tomorrow (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (Return To Tomorrow) (2)

Where were Doc Brown and Marty McFly, I felt sure they'd be making an appearance since they probably got the name of their film series from this episode and they were always travelling back in time (come to think of it why was it called 'Back To The Future'?), although this was made before that series, it's set in a future beyond that series, so they would be going forward. Do you ever have the feeling you shouldn't have gone off on a tangent, but don't know how to get back on track? How about beginning at the beginning, that's a safe place to bring things back: Mr. Sulu returns! After being absent for much of the season (George Takei filming the John Wayne film 'The Green Berets,' as anyone worth their Trekker credentials would know), he returns to his seat on the Bridge and even gets the first line of the episode. Don't ask me what it was, I've forgotten already. And Sulu was pretty much forgotten himself after that opening role. He must have wondered what had happened: he comes back on duty and might have expected a rousing round of applause or at the very least a polite enquiry into his health, but he all but disappears for the remainder of the story, only popping up to show a bit of spunk in the face of an alien bodysnatcher within Spock who's taking over the ship and threatens to torture him - the guy didn't even have the common decency to call him by name, referring to him merely as 'Helm.'

Sulu isn't the only one disrespected in this episode, or perhaps it's too much to say that - Scotty is referred to as 'Engineer' several times as if they're trying to create a bit of distance between the rapidly developing Scotsman and the three Main Stars of the series. Perhaps it was felt that, with DeForest Kelley sharing star billing in the credits it would be inevitable for James Doohan to follow suit in Season 3 the way he'd been elevated this season. And pretty soon you'd have every Tom, Dick and Harry (or George, Walter and Nichelle), in the opening credits as if it was an ensemble show - preposterous, Trek would never deign to do such a thing, surely! At least Mr. Scott was in the episode, poor old Chekov doesn't even get a showing and I wonder if Walter Koenig thought his time in the spotlight was up with the return of Sulu, even though the pair had worked together well at Helm and Navigation earlier in the season! There's no question who the stars are since both Kirk and Spock play dual roles this time and McCoy gets to be harried and worried about their health and wellbeing even more than usual. Because it's all about the consciousnesses of a long-dead race being transferred from some kind of energy spheres into the compatible minds of three suitable vessels. There was something about the situation, perhaps it was the idea of minds entrapped without bodies, perhaps because there were three of them, that recalled the brains of 'The Gamesters of Triskelion,' except these aren't unreasonable and cruel beings (mostly), they only want to find a way to perpetuate their race, and all for the best intentions, too.

I came to this episode with preconceptions that they were all bad and were going to force Kirk and the others to allow them residence in their bodies - I had the impression I didn't like the episode very much at all, and looking back on my previous rating, I was right to feel that way. I also came to watch reluctantly, tired and not in the mood for it, but whatever strange brain chemistry was sloshing about up there, and it's always possible low expectations assisted, I really took to this story, to my great surprise. Partly it was due to having 'Picard' on my mind and the questionable finale in which his consciousness is transferred into an identical android body. My thoughts had run to 'The Schizoid Man' and the scientist whose body dies while he hitches a ride in Data's as about the only precedent for such an extreme story development, but I'd forgotten this one. 'TOS' had more than its fair share of androids, not to mention conscious minds being transferred into them (I think also of Dr. Korby in 'What Are Little Girls Made Of?'), sometimes looking entirely human and you wonder how a creation such as Data would end up so nonhuman in appearance. I can't remember if that's ever been addressed because you'd think Dr. Soong would have been able to create human skin tones and eye colour if he'd chosen to. I found it fascinating to see the unfinished android body that Sargon and his assistants (with Scotty), build to house them instead of the flesh and blood vessels they're borrowing from the Enterprise, all slick skin and somehow repellant (it also explains a couple of images in the end credits of recent episodes: one with a makeup test for this 'dummy' body, and another where Spock leans nonchalantly in a doorway with a grin on his face that both looked entirely out of place from any episode!).

If the android body was of interest, much more intriguing were the attitudes on display in the story, competing points of view, and far from Kirk being forcibly manoeuvred into helping these unknown people who by their own admission and by the evidence of their planet, had been the cause of their own extinction, he is inspired to cooperate with them. I kept expecting the reveal, the penny to drop and we realise Kirk is being manipulated from the time he had Sargon within him, but it never came. Instead, he powers out such a strength of words in his 'Risk Is Our Business' speech that even the doubting, concerned McCoy is struck dumb - the episode hadn't impressed up to that point, it seemed like the usual aliens taking over characters plot ('Power Play' from 'TNG' came to mind, but without the qualities of that story), up until they sat around and discussed the situation in the Briefing Room. Somehow, even before the speech, it coalesced in my mind as being something worthy of exploration and to have all the pros and cons, the back and forth, topped off by such an eager display of persuasiveness, it got me on board the episode at last and invested me in what was happening. As we've seen several times this season, 'TNG' was far from having the monopoly on scenes of careful discussion, and the arguments were well put: the risk of damage to their bodies was compared to the promise of vast medical and scientific knowledge that could be learned in the attempt, and though this didn't seem to come to pass (sadly no walnut-sized warp engines for Scotty - or maybe they meant it should be powered by walnuts!), due to the failure of the experiment and sabotage by one megalomaniac, the chance was there.

The megalomaniac in question is one Henoch, who takes the body of Spock - he's given it freely, at first, because although Sargon doesn't force Kirk to do what he wants, he does use force to get him to at least consider the situation they're in and they can't do that until they've gone down to the vault (of Tomorrow?), to witness for themselves the state of play. Sargon shows himself to be an honourable man, but we're dealing with power beyond our characters' control, so there's a healthy suspicion there. Sargon claims that to all races comes a crisis they must face, the development of atomic weapons. Kirk is quick to point out that Earth survived its early nuclear age, which gives hope for the people of the Sixties, the contemporary viewers who had seen the effects of the atomic bombs dropped to end the Second World War only two decades before, and were in a Cold War with Russia which many feared could result in devastation of the planet. Kirk is saying it'll be alright, they'll survive and so this is very much part of that hopeful future Roddenberry wanted to portray, and we also hear a snippet of history, too, when Kirk talks of the first Apollo mission to the Moon, which actually took place the very year this episode came out, and the year before the actual first landing of astronauts on the Moon itself, so there's an impression of the coming Space Age, both carrot (space exploration), and stick (nuclear weaponry), had come to a point, so seemed, that we'd either progress out (onto Mars, then the nearest star, Kirk recalls), or end up like squashed grape, as Sargon's people did.

If it is designed to be an inspiration, it can also be seen as a warning - so things didn't pan out as people thought back then, we didn't keep progressing outwards, and instead turned inwards after disasters, both scientific and terrorist, effectively regressed the beliefs and hunger for exploring space, but neither did the Sword of Damocles fall (yet), and Trek is still there to tell the tale, which is something else they would never have foreseen from the view they had at that time. There's also a warning about arrogance as Sargon's race developed so far that they came to see themselves as godlike, putting their own achievements above that of the Creator of all - not that they referenced God himself in the episode, but there is a strong analogy to draw, if a slightly confused one: Sargon calls the Enterprise crew his children and this booming, disembodied voice is often the cliched view of how God speaks, a human interpretation of power and almightiness that doesn't really fit with the God of the Bible. Sargon is therefore a combination God and Adam in this case, but rather than the first man, the last man, or the first in a new era in which it's hoped to build an 'android robot' (as they sometimes call it in the episode!), body to house him and the other two survivors so he can spread his wisdom to the younger races that have followed, to teach them and help to avoid the fate of his own world.

It doesn't get any more explicit than when Sargon suggests Adam and Eve were themselves two of their own kind who travelled to Earth, since his people were colonising space six thousand centuries ago. The half a million years they'd been trapped in these containers suggests they were only active for about a hundred thousand years, but that's still almost unimaginable from our perspective. Could this race have been the same as that seen in the 'TNG' episode 'The Chase' which gave a similar explanation for how so many human-like races sprang up in the galaxy, they were all 'seeded' by this one race of space travellers? I'm surprised there wasn't a more definite connection between this and the later episode as it seems somewhat to correlate, though I don't remember the details clearly enough to be certain. Dr. Ann Mulhall, the guest crewmember of the week, there to conveniently host the female consciousness of Thalassa, does mention the theory of evolution, so it's not all Biblical allusions, though at this time Trek was much more open to being inclusive to such things, the Bible was, rightly, still looked upon as an authority by Western society at that time, though sadly Trek has reflected the general trend away from it ever since.

If Sargon and Thalassa play the roles of a new Adam and Eve, Henoch must by definition be a new serpent in the Garden of Eden, there to cause chaos, not obviously evil at first, but there to speak 'reasonably,' to show why God/Adam aren't giving Eve the best she could have and tempting her with what she wants: in this case a permanent place in a warm and feeling biological body. Sargon may be satisfied with survival within an artificial shell, they've been doing it for five hundred thousand years after all, but once Thalassa has felt the breath in her lungs and the blood coursing through her veins again, she doesn't want to go back and has no qualms about taking what is not hers from its rightful owner, where Sargon has a moral stance and won't ensure his liberty at the expense of others. That's why I suspected him at first because he seemed so reasonable and yet had so much power - he isn't omnipotent, only when the Enterprise is within range can he draw it closer, and only when it's close enough can he communicate with those aboard, so his power is immense, but it shows his weakness too. Kirk already pointed out the flaws of the race from the destruction on their planet, and we're also seeing his limitations, but floating in an orb for half a million years gives them time to think, there's nothing else to do, and either they'd have gone mad or they'd have reasoned out a course of action, and I love the idea of Sargon as this watchtower, searching out the voids of space forever hoping for a ship to come near.

Considering later events in the episode you'd think he might have simply transferred his consciousness straight into the Enterprise herself, that's what he does when Kirk as host is killed by the deadly injections formulated by Henoch, but it may be he needed closer proximity to the ship and to get aboard he'd need to be within a biological entity, although even there they must have beamed up the spheres. It may have been necessary to be in a body first, but this side of the story is a little sketchy, and in any case, Sargon wasn't going to impose himself. Henoch was another matter entirely, but it's possible once leaving a human mind it wouldn't have been possible to get back from the ship's computer, but that's where the whole thing is a bit uneven since Henoch is tricked into leaving Spock's body, jumping into 'oblivion' because he'll cease to exist, presumably, if he remains in a body that dies - Sargon was able to leap into the mechanism of the ship, but maybe Henoch doesn't have that knowledge? It's great in showing the kind of society Sargon now represents that both sides in the conflict were given space in the vault so that not one side would be considered the 'victor' since no one had really won, they'd both lost by ruining their planet. But Henoch really is evil, he is the mirror of Sargon, he'll do whatever it takes to hold onto this new life he's waited so long for, and you can imagine while Sargon pondered on the evils of his world and how to avoid them in the future, he must have brooded and planned for this day he could continue the fight he'd never given up.

Events take an interesting turn when Kirk, Spock and Mulhall allow the aliens to use their bodies, though I wasn't quite sure if they were sharing them with the host consciousness still within, or whether the minds were swapped into the spheres. Later, this becomes obvious because Spock's mind was in Henoch's sphere when it was destroyed and we think all is over for him - we don't really, because we know he's got another season to go, plus eight films and a cameo in a couple of 'TNG' episodes, but I wondered it was going to be some kind of alien jiggery-pokery to make things right. In fact the solution was truly brilliant and surprised and amazed in its audacity and clever plotting, the kind of thing modern TV is always aiming for but rarely achieves! To back up, once Spock has played host to this smarmy, suspicious character your hackles go up. Seeing the usual precision and control of the Vulcan altered into an easy grin and relaxed attitude you can't help but feel badly towards him. The beauty of Trek was its continuity and they had built up this connection between Spock and Chapel that they were able to play with here. Henoch uses some kind of mind meld that was more akin to the brief touch he used on McCoy to transfer his katra in 'Star Trek II' before making the ultimate sacrifice, but Henoch's motives are far from pure, implanting the command to use the deadly hypospray (which she uses a stylus, interestingly, to 'code mark' for each body). Hypnotic suggestion is supposed to be unable to make a person do what isn't in their character, such as murder, but Vulcan mind powers are an entirely different class and Chapel has no choice but to obey.

She does at least show concern and uncertainty for the rest of the episode as if there's something at the back of her mind that doesn't make sense, but she can't bring it to the fore. But it was an absolute masterstroke when we learn Spock's mind was carried by her, sharing consciousness to her undoubted joy, closer to him than she could ever have dreamed, and what a stunning coup that just as McCoy is about to 'kill' the body of Spock, Chapel, apparently still under the power of Henoch's mastery of Vulcan control is ordered to use this same hypospray on a frozen McCoy and at the last second turns and injects Henoch to his utter bafflement. Truly one of the greatest moments in 'TOS' and left me astounded at the simplicity of the solution and the elegance of how it played out. My only quibble is that you'd expect Henoch not to be fooled by the hypo which was actually just a knockout compound, but when he's just suffered such a shock betrayal and had previously read McCoy's mind as to it being full of a deadly poison, it makes sense he'd react in panic - he doesn't have Spock's careful cognisance and a logical calm at all times and is defeated magnificently. It couldn't have happened without Sargon and Thalassa, the second of which gives in to temptation, going as far as torturing McCoy with illusory tongues of flame (a bit like Pike by the Talosians), until she realises there's nothing for it but to give up what was not hers in the first place. In this she reminded me of Galadriel in 'The Lord of The Rings,' this powerful woman who is given the very thing she desires right there in the palm of her hand, but after consideration consciously chooses the right path, even though it be to her harm, understanding the temptation is too great for her.

That's exactly the kind of redemptive arc I love to see and which Trek has succeeded so often with in the past (emphasis on past!). Once again it proves that it's not what you do, but how you do it. In 'Picard' it doesn't feel right for a 'grounded,' more sophisticated series to have the main character die and be restored in android form (especially with the daft stipulations that he'll continue to age as normal! Even the bodies Sargon made were designed to last as a 'thousand year cage,' as Henoch describes them negatively). A version of Kirk died in another universe, in 'Into Darkness,' which also happened right near the end of the episode, but in that case it was entirely ridiculous, designed shamefully as merely a motivation for an action scene ride. Kirk's body dies here (though not his mind, stored as it was in the sphere - but was his mind swapped with the sphere on the planet when they first beamed down because he never mentions what it was like being out of his body), but it's all part of the building story, it's used as a bargaining chip with which Thalassa tries to tempt McCoy - this woman is of no consequence to him, he doesn't know her and if he stays silent and lets her live out her days pretending to be Mulhall, she'll restore Kirk to life. It's as if McCoy is now in the position of Adam, to take or refuse the fruit from Eve that will give him what he wants. But McCoy is more principled and won't give in, even under torture, forcing Thalassa to reevaluate herself and what she's becoming. Beautifully written and dramatically satisfying.

Which also goes for the final fate of Sargon and Thalassa, that they have no place to go other than oblivion, whatever that means, but they'll be together, and after one last moment of revival in the bodies of Kirk and Mulhall they are resigned to the end, a touching and noble tragedy that concludes the episode strongly. What most excited me about the episode was the ground it was breaking for the idea of Vulcan katras and the movement of the mind between vessels. It's very much science fiction, and awkwardly it also brings to mind 'Spock's Brain' when a revived Kirk says they must kill his body now that Spock's consciousness is gone! I wonder if this was what inspired the notorious Season 3 opener? And yet again the poor reception of that episode shows that it's the way you do something that makes it true to the drama and the characters, or a ludicrous stunt. And the episode even throws in another potent question that people probably hadn't thought of before: why didn't the Vulcans conquer humanity? We know it's because they're the good guys, and Spock being controlled by an evil man shows just what a formidable foe he would be, much like Data as a figure of threat when he's taken over in 'TNG' (such as in 'Brothers'). Superior strength, superior ability, superior ambition… I'm not going to make the usual joke about returning to visit the space seeds in a hundred years because this was the end of that civilisation, but Spock and the Vulcans are in many ways a superior breed. McCoy gives us the answer: the Vulcans worship peace above all else, and while this doesn't always ring true for the Vulcans seen in 'Enterprise' and 'DSC,' they are the exceptions to the rule of the greatest race Trek ever devised.

It's good to know the Enterprise is out so far beyond where any 'Earth ship' has gone before (hundreds of lightyears in fact - it'll take them three weeks to get a message to Starfleet!), since that is the mission, the subject of the opening monologue of the credits, because sometimes space seems a little overpopulated. But visiting a long-dead planet, transporting down through solid rock (the look on McCoy's face, always the voice of rationality and common sense rather than mechanical marvels!), to a vault deep underground, finding the last remnants who have reached out for them, is a very poignant setup. Even though it's a thoughtful episode that draws you in with big concepts there's still room to witness the day to day life of the Enterprise, the community (such as another nurse who also has that same red cross badge), and the formality, such as Sulu being left in charge of the conn when Kirk and Spock are off to beam down. For once Kirk shows good sense when suggesting it's too risky for both Captain and First Officer to beam down (I thought risk was part of the job…), in stark contrast to the rest of the season when it's almost always been he and Spock on Landing Party duty! It was only really there so they could show more of Sargon's power, who wants Spock along as the kind of mind needed for his plan, and it's one of those cases when the Transporter only selectively beams down users: the Security Guards (including a Leslie brother), are left behind. That's why Scotty doesn't get to operate the device, though it's strange that he wasn't given command instead of Sulu as he usually takes over as third-in-command. Perhaps it was felt the best man for the job was required for such a delicate beaming operation and maybe that's why Sulu didn't sit in the centre seat as he was just keeping the standard orbit steady rather than commanding?

I had a feeling James Doohan was the booming voice of Sargon, though I soon forgot about it as I was pulled into the story, and so it proved (though he went uncredited for it), and it's fun to realise William Blackburn played the android (he was usually seen as Mr. Hadley), but the most noteworthy casting choice was for Dr, Mulhall played by Diana Muldaur, later to reappear in another role in Season 3 (also in an episode of high quality), and more importantly as the divisive Dr. Katherine Pulaski in one season of 'TNG,' then never seen or heard from again. She has the same forthright attitude and commanding presence as she'd later have as a main character, and it's somewhat strange to see her so young with it, but it's one of those terrific Trek connections that resonated across the decades, no matter how you react to Pulaski. It adds a further interest to a story that really impressed me, and surprised me that I didn't take to it before. Sometimes a lesser known or remembered instalment can do that and it's one reason I actively like to forget all the details of an episode, coming back to it a few years later to rediscover it to some degree, though it's going to be harder in future to follow that pattern as I've watched the episodes more and more over the years and with much greater analytical depth. A bit like Sargon sitting in his sphere with all that time in which to ponder.

***

Duplicity

DVD, Smallville S2 (Duplicity)

A bit of an unhappy one, but not as much as I thought it was going to be. I was under the mistaken impression that Pete left in the same episode in which he learned Clark's secret, always a missed opportunity as it would be fun to see him and his pal doing stuff together now that he's in on it all. In fact the episode has a very upbeat ending as Clark enjoys showing off his true basketball skills to an amazed Pete. But the best moment of the episode has to go to Pete himself who, despite his strong disappointment that Clark so distrusted him that he wouldn't share his big secret up till now, protects him with his life when it comes down to the deranged Dr. Hamilton threatening to inject him with raw meteor juice unless he tells him whose spaceship this belongs to. Pete was an absolute hero and what a relief to see someone willing to die to protect Clark's secret! Unfortunately he also shows why it's best Clark keeps it under wraps because it's his slip of the tongue that tips off Hamilton that Pete knows its owner. I found it very interesting that Jonathan Kent actually says Clark doesn't really have a choice when it comes to not telling people, because what is his most famous quote? 'We always have a choice, son.' When it comes to protecting Clark you have to wonder how far he'd go, though we'd already explored that a little in the opening episode when he almost went to the extreme of killing Nixon, but in the end didn't.

It shows the moral path isn't clearcut when it comes to this unique situation, but whether Clark was right or not to finally come clean to Pete, is a different question. As we'd later see, Pete doesn't stay around Smallville for long and finds it too hard to keep it within him (which seems to be a theme of the episode since Nell can't keep it to herself that she's been proposed to by her new boyfriend, much to Lana's dismay), so while there was some short term relief for Clark and some joy for Pete to know his friend's a super-powered alien with his own spaceship, it becomes too heavy a burden to bear. While I was expecting it to be so much of a downer it's really only some of the time and you do wonder what Pete will do, but it's really only Lana that gets to Clark when he refuses to let her in on the private spat between him and Pete after she's just admitted she broke up with Whitney. It was an uncomfortable scene and Clark always looks so guilty you have to wonder how characters don't see through him - I felt the same way when Lex or Chloe spoke to him about the ship's octagonal disc and the spaceship rumour, respectively. If Clark ever shows reticence that would seem to suggest they're on the right track. Maybe Chloe's journalistic instincts aren't fully honed yet when it comes to her best friends, but you'd think Lex would see the guilt and evasion every time, since he seems so switched on.

Lex has enough to keep his mind busy at the moment, however, what with Hamilton effectively messing up Cadmus Labs, the facility where he was doing meteor research for Lex, but his jitters illness (as seen in 'Jitters' - a nice callback), turns him violent leading to staff quitting and things being damaged. We're also reminded that Lex has his own business to run as he took over the Smallville plant last season, something you'd think would be much higher on the story agenda. But this season the growing community of the town was to be severely curtailed: we get Nell and Hamilton back, but the first is in the process of being written out (I don't know how many more times she'd appear), and the second dies in this episode so although I enjoy them returning to plots from Season 1 it's a shame they felt the need to bring them to a halt, most often by killing off the recurring characters as if they wanted to be done with what had become a good part of the unfolding drama. I can't really say Lionel Luthor's presence has improved the series so far, he worked so well as a force of nature coming in and upsetting the applecart, and now they have to keep finding reasons for him to be in Smallville rather than it being natural.

It's also a bit of a puzzle over how much he knew in these early years because in a later season we find he was part of the Veritas group that were protecting Clark in secret (I think), and knew all about the spaceship's arrival. If so, you have to wonder at his role in this episode where he seems to have no idea about it all, while Hamilton tries to get him onboard for funding when Lex drops him as a responsible employer should. Hamilton is very well acted, he really feels like he's on the very edge of completely losing it and smashing everything to pieces and makes for an ideal villain. Not that he's a match for Clark other than threatening to pour meteor juice on him, but then Clark did blurt out that it makes him ill and it's best never to let on to your weaknesses in front of enemies! But there are a lot of things that don't make logical sense: how did Pete pull that hefty bloke out of his van? Why could the police not find this van as it must have made quite a mess of the cornfield? How could Pete (even with Clark), move the spaceship, especially lifting it into the truck? Why didn't Clark just tell Pete he couldn't help letting Pa Kent in on the secret and they came to look at it? Admittedly, that last one would still look shady as why wouldn't they just talk to Pete first? Why does Clark feel it's okay to practice his powers out in the open on the farm - Pete drives right up to the gate before he's realised he's there and you see a bus in the background so anyone with reasonable vision would be able to see Clark throwing the basketball from so far away if they happened by!

Hamilton gets away with murder, killing the van driver, yet the Medical Centre knows he was the last person to visit him as he apparently signed in! You'd think Sheriff Ethan would be paying him a visit after that suspicious death. We don't know how much time elapsed across the episode, we see it light and dark at various times so maybe I could give it the benefit of the doubt and say that either the Sheriff's office was overrun with more high profile cases, or, being country law enforcement, they have their own pace of dealing with things. Otherwise it looks a little incompetent… But I did like the way Clark reveals his true self to Pete, shooting in front of the car and stopping it mid-drive. It may not have been the wisest method, it is quite shocking, but it was a spur of the moment decision and something that couldn't be undone. Later, when they're buds again I really wanted Pete to go through various episodes we saw and ask Clark what happened here or there, so he gets the picture, but then maybe Clark should just give him the Season 1 DVD set and that would answer all his questions! Pete gets to feel what Clark felt, being duplicitous all those years, because Chloe stumbles upon them and while Pete doesn't actually lie, he doesn't make the truth sound believable and he must have realised, if not then, certainly later, that it really is a huge responsibility and how it is to have to cover even to people you like and trust.

The important thing is that the soap opera of Lana and Chloe getting upset over Clark is practically nonexistent, other than Lana's one moment of irritation in Clark's lack of confidence in her, and they really needed to do something that gave Pete a role. They probably thought this was the way to go, I'm not sure if they planned to get rid of the character or it was a result of him becoming a lame duck, but in the end he did become just Chloe Mark II, he didn't have a strongly defined role. This new development could have opened the character up in better writer's hands, but this was just one of the negative aspects of the season that they promised much and wanted to deliver, but ended up breaking apart the community and feel of the series that had been built so successfully in Season 1. I used to like this episode better, and while I still enjoyed it, particularly Pete's understanding of Clark's abilities and the feel-good ending, it also shows up too many of the coming flaws and as such it wasn't quite as strong as it used to be, though still good, plus it shows the strong morality of Clark that he wouldn't even let his enemies die, he'll help people regardless, a positive quality that should be more common in TV and film, but sadly, isn't.

***

The End Is The Beginning

DVD, Star Trek: Picard S1 (The End Is The Beginning)

No one could accuse them of rushing this series along, it's taken the great spacefarer and explorer Jean-Luc Picard three episodes just to get into space! But I don't mind that so much, because although I'm not finding anything compelling about the series at this point, beyond an interest in what's going to happen, neither am I appalled or put off, and on this second viewing the story crystallised a little better: for example, I didn't previously twig the connection between the android attack on Utopia Planitia and the reversal of the decision to provide relief for the refugee Romulans. We're gifted a flashback to the day Picard resigned from Starfleet and see his and Raffi's conversation outside Headquarters where he informs her of what happened. For me this was the best and most interesting part of the episode, and (aside from Data's cameos), the best moment of the first three episodes. Why is that? Because it's Picard, Admiral (even though he seems to have the four pips of a Captain, unless I'm mistaken), and we get an even better presentation of the uniform - it's so good to see the beloved Captain (or Admiral), in later Starfleet uniform than was worn in the 2370s, and it's also great to be reminded that this rescue armada was being developed two years prior to the actual event of the supernova in 2387 (sense!). Sure, I would have preferred the grey-shouldered unis of the 'TNG' films as I feel they could easily have been around six years post-'Nemesis,' but the 'latest' variant looks good, especially the braid that underlines Picard's command red. It's a flat colour, too, without texture, harking back to the 'Voyager' days, contrasting with the contemporary style of 2399 when the series is set.

It's just… it's so agonising because what draws me to the scene is the Trek of it all: Starfleet officers wearing uniform and talking regulations and holding a PADD… It's the Trek I want to see, not some outsider perspective that follows a group of troubled individuals. I'm drawn to the heroic, positive vision of the 24th Century and each new piece of the puzzle brings further doubt on the efficacy of the world we're supposed to have then. I think the idea was to mirror our current events about the UK exiting the European Union, but I just don't get the reality of the entire Federation and Starfleet refusing help, even to a former enemy, especially to a former enemy! If we'd had more details about the Romulans turning on their former allies of the Dominion War, if we'd heard that they had gone to war or had perpetrated terrible acts on member worlds, something that could suggest reason for our people to refuse help, it would make some sense out of the situation, and throwing out the good character of the central organisation of Trek merely to express displeasure at present day political decisions is like sabotaging the very thing you're trying to present. And I really don't like that. It's not like we see the Federation do a u-turn and end the season respecting Romulans and working towards an induction into the Federation, just as it's all well and good giving us broken characters that need to find a place and a purpose, but you need to show signs of redemption for it to truly feel like Trek.

I don't want to get ahead of myself and preempt the final episode, but we never see these characters achieving that. We can say they came together and have a new role as a crew on this odd ship, but that's one of those problems with serialised storytelling: you don't get resolution until the very end (and the massive build-up to get there, so far, has always made the finale a major letdown), and even because this series is supposed to go for three seasons we likely won't get there until the final episode of the final season, if then. There's an impression of people who are refusing to fit in, refusing to see what's happened to them and learn from it and just generally not behaving in the manner that humanity is supposed to from Roddenberry's own plans for 'TNG.' That's a big problem because although we saw plenty of outsider characters or those with personal issues to overcome, both outside Starfleet and within it, we did see development. I always think of Dr. Bashir on 'DS9' who many people found as arrogant and annoying as Chief O'Brien did working with him in the early seasons, but we saw him settle down over time. We don't have the time for that in these short seasons that cover only one main story, we don't get those episodes like, I don't know, 'The Wire' or 'Rivals' where we see different sides to Bashir and come to like him. And characters that didn't change much, like Quark and Odo, weren't human or Starfleet and they did change, but in subtler ways, their nature bending towards the values of their Starfleet friends. One of the best things about latter 'Voyager' was Seven of Nine's progression from troubling rebel to a firm member of the crew's family.

I don't really know what I'm saying: we need time for these characters to develop and become the best they can be, but we don't have the time, I think that encapsulates it. There's also an impression of arrogance with them that they defy the good humanity and positive Earth that they no longer feel part of. If it had been just one character like this then it would have been good to see the effect Picard had on them for change, but the modern attitude is that people aren't broken, they're just being whatever they will be, which is at odds with the idea that everyone has their place in the 24th Century, no one is in want, don't even understand that word. Yet Raffi is filled with bitterness and anger, envious of Picard's life at the chateau as if discontented with the place she lives in - I think she even called it a hovel! Does she appreciate the beautiful natural backdrop where she lives? Does she appreciate anything? She drowns her troubles in smoking drugs (snake leaf, she calls it), defiantly picking leaves and smoking it in front of Picard (who doesn't seem to show any concern), and drinking to excess (and we're not talking synthehol - I'm not even sure that exists in this version of Trek!), moans that Picard never got in contact with her, yet when he did make contact he asked her not to 'hang up' in the previous episode, as if that's what he expected, as if he'd tried before. It's almost like the drink and drugs have affected her mind and judgement… She's also very proud, joining the mission, but not joining the mission, pretending she has her own reason for a trip to Freecloud, the tipoff for where Bruce Maddox may be.

I'm sure this is all very accessible to non-Trek viewers as it's the kind of character you would see in contemporary drama, but I don't watch Trek to see it parallel gritty, nasty, bleak real life (or a part of it, anyway, the part that filmmakers seem most drawn to!), I want to see redemption and intelligence defeating negativity. Captain Rios is a similar character - we meet him slumped in a chair on the Bridge (not the Captain's Chair so that Picard can walk by it wistfully, longing to sit in it as the 'TNG' theme plays quietly), a piece of shrapnel sticking out of his shoulder. We don't find out why or how it got there, it's all part of the mystique, the setup to tell us the kind of man he is. Trouble is, the best introductions of characters show what they're capable of, and here, just like Raffi, he's smoking a cigar and later drowns his discontent in a bottle. He also shows contempt for his holographic servants, for that's all they are. Are we saying these aren't sentient beings? They're much more realistic and human than the archive lady in 'Remembrance,' modelled after Rios himself, except with different accents. Synthetics banned, holos allowed? It wasn't a bad misdirection when the English-voiced EMH greets Picard and leads him to the Bridge, but the sense of fun and hilarity coming from these people once again denies dignity to characters - they are clearly little more than tools. It's like 'Voyager' never happened and humanity's response to the Doctor's return has had no effect on holographic nature at all! Either they needed to be less personable and more obviously just an extension of the ship, or they needed to be treated with some respect and not dismissed as Rios does.

It doesn't make Rios look a particularly appealing chap and while there is a certain amount of entertainment to be garnered from the multiple Rios-alike holograms through the season (especially one memorable scene featuring all of them later on), and it does show that we're well ahead of earlier 24th Century tech when you can have so many holos on a non-Starfleet ship, it's also played up for comedy that wouldn't look out of place in a series about the Ferengi. You need some lightness, granted, as the series, for all its inspiration from 'TNG,' is quite heavy and can't escape the portentousness that dragged 'Discovery' down in both its first two seasons, but achieving it without laughing at a character or demeaning them in some way is necessary to show you know how to write good Trek. They also fall into the trap of going down the mythological path to try and bring wonder and suspense and atmosphere. I'm talking about not just the Jhat Vash, the Romulan secret police inner sanctum cult, or whatever it is, but the Romulan mythology about some person called the Destroyer, whom a mentally troubled Romulan woman (Romda - when I first saw her I though it might be Robin Curtis or even Susanna Thompson, but it wasn't), accuses Soji of being when she goes to speak with her, all highly melodramatic (though the Tal Shiar agents share this belief).

At least it's coming from a disturbed person, one who sits with bizarre Romulan tarot cards, so it's not like they're endorsing such things. She's one of the 'disordered' as Soji calls her, who was aboard the last ship to be assimilated by this Borg Cube they're on. The Imperial Scoutship Chenor, though something went wrong and caused the submatrix to collapse, apparently. Can't get a good submatrix these days. I remember thinking how much there was to take in on first viewing and it did help to watch it again, but it's still a lot of exposition and setup and they try to inject tension and drama into scenes of conversation by having that hovering camera, the frame bobbing up and down as if you're aboard a naval ship, or spying on the action with a pair of binoculars from a distance. It may work fine for Jason Bourne films where there is supposed to be a tension running through all the time, but they're only a couple of hours long and this story doesn't need to maintain such an impression for ten episodes! If there's action then fine, play with the camera if you must, but if it's an ordinary scene of people talking it's what they're saying that should be drawing you in, not the unsettling directing style. One of the things I loved about the vast majority of Trek was that it was clean and stable and the shots were well chosen to present the drama in the best way, but too many films and TV rely on handheld shots so much, another reason that watching modern stuff feels uncomfortable compared to the relaxing, reassuring Trek of old.

Though the story was easier to follow, namely that the Mars Shipyards were responsible for building the vast fleet required to take the tens of millions of Romulans that were to be saved, I was still unclear on certain things. The big mystery is why, as Raffi believes, would the Tal Shiar want to destroy the very thing that was to save their people, as she thinks they were behind the androids' attack on Mars which killed tens of thousands of people. I still don't understand why that happened and I've seen the whole season! Hopefully, going through it with a fine tooth-comb for these reviews will make all clear. We learn that Picard was actually playing Poker with Starfleet when he put forward the ultimatum that they accept either his plan to rescue the rescue mission, or his resignation - I always knew gambling would get him into trouble, it seems the sky isn't the limit after all! It was an ignominious end to what was probably the greatest Starfleet career ever: we have the ENH (Emergency Navigational Hologram), running through a list of his accomplishments when trying to point out to Rios Picard's qualities, and it was lovely to hear. Chief contact with the Q Continuum, Arbiter of Succession for the Klingons, saviour of Earth in the Borg invasion, Captain of both Enterprises-D and -E, and to cap it all, worked alongside the 'great' Spock (why not throw in a reference to the most famous Vulcan of all? Although a shame he couldn't have said worked alongside James T. Kirk because that was probably kept secret by Picard).

From this we get new information on Picard. If he'd said Captain of the Enterprise-D-to-F then we'd have known the lifespan of the E, but it must still have been going strong when he resigned in 2385, which is good to know. But it does make me wonder who became Captain after Picard? There was no Data, the obvious choice, and Worf, though his contribution as Ambassador to the Klingons was cruelly overlooked in 'Nemesis,' would have been unlikely to take command because of the reprimands on his record (killing Duras in 'TNG,' choosing to save his wife instead of a key Dominion defector and failing the mission in 'DS9'). Perhaps Geordi, as we know he was 'supposed' to go on to command a Galaxy-class starship, going by 'Voyager' episode 'Timeless.' Or maybe something outlandish like having Dr. Crusher succeed in her command track dream? More likely it would have been a new character, but it's amazing how much speculation you can pull out of one simple quote. But once again it just makes me long to be within Starfleet bulkheads, aboard a starship that is part of that august organisation, and that's not what they're doing, they deliberately wanted to do something different, but as I've said before, everything they do is different and while they could get away with one series against the norm in a menu of series choices, I think most Trekkers, if they're anything like me, want Trek that feels like Trek!

Not to say there was no Trek nature to this episode at all. As well as the delightful return to Starfleet uniform for the flashback (and it's not a dream this time!), and the wonderful list of Picard's achievements from the ENH, the very finale moment of the episode also served up a large dose of pleasure when, as the 'TNG' theme swells behind him, Picard gives the immortal command: "Engage!" and the little band are off on their travels. It may be a slim and single breadcrumb to follow that Bruce Maddox is on this planet and may be the man to talk to, and it certainly isn't a very clear mission for Picard, but there's an air of optimism as only the start of a new journey can give, and best of all we see the starship (which had yet to be given a name by this episode), warp off properly, all straight lines and a flash at the end of it! That's all I want! Things that correspond to how Trek is supposed to be! It's simple. Except it's not, and I can't say that I'm drawn to any of the characters. Even Picard is so hard to recognise through his strained voice - I wish, in a way they'd managed to alter it to make it sound like the normal commanding tones back in 2385 to emphasise the difference fourteen years makes to a person, but equally that might have detracted because you'd be wishing he spoke like that all the time. It's just hard to hear a once rich and powerful voice so weak and feeble.

Talking of weak and feeble… Agnes Jurati makes her comeback, and she makes much more of a speech than Picard ever did when trying to encourage Rios that there's still Starfleet within him, through and through. It's the kind of melodramatic entreaty that was far too common in 'DSC,' and would be more appropriate for 'Dr. Who' than Trek as she opens wide her eyes and flings out an emotional barrage of reasons she should tag along. None of which include the fact she was 'very' close to Maddox and she's been implanted with some kind of mind meld that will get her to kill the man. For Commodore Oh is not a Vulcan as Picard claims… Or is she? I get confused, again. I could really have done without Jurati, she's the least appealing of a fairly unappealing bunch, and what's more she doesn't seem to even know that the Federation doesn't deal in money any more! What was that line in 'First Contact' when Picard tells Lily Sloane they don't use money any more and instead work to 'better ourselves' and humanity? Clearly Jurati doesn't know about any of that because she says she doesn't care how much it costs to go, where they're going or how much the pilot charges, to which Rios responds he's expensive! Okay, so maybe we could take it as some form of barter she's talking about, but that wouldn't make any more sense than money since they have Replicators so no one has any need, right? Unless society has actually reverted to former ways and the currency economy is back up and running?

That was probably the low point of the episode, although the disgusting suggestiveness between the sibling Romulan spies, Narek and… that other one I can't recall the name of. If they're looking to do things that haven't been done in Trek, true, there aren't many avenues left to pioneer, but such forbidden facets of degraded characters are not what I want to see on my Trek, even if they're only suggested, and only by the villains of the piece. I suspect 'Game of Thrones' has something to do with the moral turn in what's acceptable to show in drama as we spiral ever downwards. I must admit I was so surprised by it on first viewing that I assumed the 'brother' and 'sister' designations were merely nicknames said in fun until in other episodes it's unequivocally stated that they are definitely siblings. There's further suggestion of Narek and Soji's intimate, yet casual association, but if it's supposed to be a secret then it's not a very well protected one since when he shows up at the door of her Quarters we see a very busy corridor and gangway visible outside, so unless it's perfectly reasonable and common for men and women to meet up in each other's personal spaces there I suspect the secret's out. I also wasn't crazy about the attack on Picard's chateau, a bunch of black-clad Romulan agents charging in with fully-powered rifles and easily overpowered by an old human and his two middle-aged Romulan housekeepers! (Of course they aren't just housekeepers, they're superheroes!). Are we supposed to believe Loris and Joban are former Tal Shiar or some other form of agent? Did Picard know what they were capable of? He doesn't seem surprised by their acrobatics (and we're back in Bourne territory again, which is just weird to watch - modern Trek loves it's martial arts combat, it's so bizarre!).

One interesting facet did emerge from the aftermath of the encounter, as while they hold one of the agents captive (with good old-fashioned rope tied to a chair - really futuristic there!), and he refuses to talk (and what were they likely to do, turn him over to Starfleet - big scare!), Loris says he's a stubborn northerner like Joban. Since they both share the (mild), forehead ridges which Loris doesn't have, it's easy to take this as an offhanded explanation for why some Romulans have bumpy-heads and others are flat. That's all you need, just a nod to the audience to acknowledge the difference, and that's what should have been done with the Klingons back in 'DSC' Season 1 - I guess they are learning after all! We're not actually told the pair were in the Tal Shiar, rather it's a similarly subtle line when Loris tells Joban 'we're not like them any more' when he goes to punch their captive in the face. We also learn Romulan rifles don't have a stun setting, which sounds unlikely because they seem the kind of people that would want as many options as possible, though it was supposed to be something of a lightener for Jurati's entrance into the scene - it's also part of the preparation for her to be a murderer later on, when here she seems so shocked by it and is all wide-eyed and horrified. It could also show that she was being manipulated as her natural tendencies aren't toward violence, but we'll get to all that eventually.

A more pleasant introduction to the season is to have Hugh, a character who was only in a couple of 'TNG' episodes (and his last appearance was in the less than great final Borg story of 'TNG,' 'Descent'), proving memorable in his debut in 'I, Borg,' either the beginning of the emasculation of the Borg as a terrifying unstoppable foe, or the Trek ability to turn even the nastiest villain into a potential friend through education, sympathy and support. I didn't used to like him as he was so weedy, but over the years I came to appreciate what was done there, so I was intrigued to hear of his part in 'Picard.' As it turned out he didn't have a great deal to do, perhaps his line to Soji in this episode about there being none more despised in the galaxy than ex-Borg (or 'xBs' as they like to label them on this series), was his best moment as it has so much resonance from him. But, but, but… if you hadn't followed the promotion of the series and its attendant publicity photos, you probably wouldn't know who he is or get even the hint that he'd been on Trek before (actor Jonathan Del Arco also showed up as another character on 'Voyager' and I always assumed that would be his final contribution to Trek), since he looks nothing like the pasty-faced full Borg in 'TNG' and his name isn't even mentioned until they're talking to Romda in the room of the 'disordered' like something out of 'Frame of Mind'! Even then it's just dropped in, in a line, it's not very clear, so maybe they were trying not to put off new viewers with too much information?

We learn he's the man behind the Reclamation Project on the Cube, calling himself the Executive Director, although there does seem to be some friction between him and the Romulans who don't exactly snap to attention so it's really unclear how this whole project is working. It seems he's there to recover the former Borg and says the Romulan view is that they are property to be exploited or a hazard to be warehoused. We still don't know why the Cube was severed from the Collective (and just from the start with that roll into the Cube with ominous music, it feels so much like 'Star Wars' and the Death Star, even the music was reminiscent of the Sith or the Emperor's theme - where is the Trek fingerprint, why rely on other franchises for inspiration?), but it could be that due to the madness of the Jhat Vash, seen later in the season, that the Borg didn't want their drones infected by such things, in which case why wouldn't they have blown it up as we've seen them do before? It's also claimed that all the disordered (the mentally troubled xBs), are Romulan, which supports this hypothesis of Jhat Vash rejection, but the statement that these are the only Romulans ever assimilated, according to Hugh, is patently wrong since we've seen Romulan Borg before! Orum, from the 'Voyager' episode 'Unity' is one ex-Romulan/ex-Borg that immediately jumped to mind, unless Hugh meant they were the only ones on this Cube. That's more likely.

It's still worrying that the Tal Shiar can act on Earth with impunity and Picard thinks they have the complicity of the Federation, which seems completely ridiculous, even given he had a falling out with their policies! A high ranking official must have allowed the Mars attack to go forward to end the rescue mission, but I still don't have a clue why. Was it all to set people against the synthetics so even at the cost of saving Romulan lives the Tal Shiar or Jhat Vash would go to that trouble? And was Oh in charge then? And is she actually Vulcan? And did they include smooth-foreheaded Romulans in order to have the 'twist' of a Vulcan actually being Romulan? Because it has been done before, you know! I know it's a bit silly to pick on this, but I'm going to anyway: I didn't like that she wore sunglasses when she met Jurati (who seemed to be listening to the Kaseelian opera used in 'DSC,' I think the one about the disgusting singer who kills herself after her performance in a horrible act that represents the worst example of euthanasia or suicide). For one thing Vulcan eyes are inured to the harsh desert climate of their homeworld (unless you believe 'DSC' where it's full of lakes and forests, bizarrely!), and even if she is Romulan they are of the same genetics. But most importantly it looks silly to have a 24th Century character wearing shades! That extended to the wardrobe of other characters, with Picard sporting jacket and belted trousers as if Patrick Stewart had just walked in off the street (that has to be a stipulation for his involvement in the series, I bet!), and even Rios wore some kind of fisherman's jumper and I half expected him to don a cap (I think the Scottish Emergency Engineering Hologram actually did wear one, or was it the Hospitality Hologram - we haven't seen them yet).

These are things that make it feel less Trekky as if they don't want to be associated with the spit and polish of rules and regulations (not that they paid much attention to those things on 'DSC'!), and though they're only minor issues compared to character and story, they only emphasise the distance between this and other 24th Century Trek. We get our first sight of Rios' ship in the episode and it couldn't look more like something from 'Star Wars' if it tried, right down to the red and white or silver markings, the shape (podracer!), the lack of recognisable Federation starship conventions. I don't hate it, it's not bad, but we don't even get an idea of how Rios came to own it. Was it stolen? He seems like a rugged, roguish Han Solo anti-hero type, and this gaggle of disparate characters coming together feels more and more like the 'crew' of the Millennium Falcon. Somehow that disturbs me, because as much as I love those original 'Star Wars' films I don't want my Trek to ape them, the things I like about each franchise are the polar opposite for the most part. We're supposed to feel sorry for Rios, I think, with the angry discussion he has with the ENH in his Quarters where we find out he was the Executive Officer of a heavy cruiser in Starfleet, the Ibn Majid, except he was there to see his Captain brutally killed and it's scarred him for life. What about counsellors? What about due process and rehabilitation? All Starfleet officers have gone through tough times, but they're Starfleet, they come through it, and that's the inspirational side that's missing from modern Trek. We're seeing characters who are broken, fair enough, but they have no reason to be broken in the Trek world, especially if they live on Earth or have their own ship, it doesn't gel with what we know. Unless the great civilisation has foundered, a cancer allowed in, with the Mars attack and subsequent response to ban all synthetic life only the start of a radical new fall, which is depressing and disappointing after their values were tested so harshly in the Dominion War and they weren't found wanting.

We see further evidence of the disrespecting of Picard and all the old Federation values he stands for, when Rios says Raffi warned him Picard was a speechmaker, as if positive traits are under attack and not something admired by this later generation. Even the facts Rios is tattooed and is a drinker and smoker seem designed to appeal to modern audiences who don't want heroes any more (unless they have silly superpowers and wear spandex suits), since previously such disregard for one's own body was unthinkable in Trek. There's a further little insight into the Captain when he argues with his ENH and tells him not to spout 'juvenile Sunday school morality' - yeah, like he'd even know about such things! For one thing it's not juvenile and I did appreciate the comeback from the ENH about sparing him the angsty teenage moral relativism, although that's as far as it goes, it's not like we'd get an actual discussion of moral views on Trek these days, it's far too concerned with appearances, action and mystery twists, just like the Kelvin films were (and may be again, but let's hope not!). I understand he's bitter about his Captain's death, but it makes him and Raffi look bad that they haven't sought help, that they've just allowed themselves to sink into the mire of 21st Century attitudes and doesn't inspire confidence in the writers that they can turn it around (because they couldn't). If Picard was supposed to be a guide to a better way for these lost sheep then it didn't really work out as he's constantly undermined and made to look foolish for believing in such positive messages as we know he always has. And that's very disappointing.

At least we didn't have to see his dog, Number 1, again. He mentions he'll miss him, but there's not even one scene that shows him giving the mutt a last scratch behind the ear before heading off into space! He doesn't even know if he'll be back! The absence of the dog can be accounted for in a couple of ways: I know he wasn't playing ball and so they reduced his scenes, but also if he had been around the Romulans would have had to kill him when they attacked the chateau. It's a big estate and he could be locked up safely in some kennel away from the house, but we never even hear how any of this happened, though Loris mentions the alarm had been turned off. Picard claims he never felt at home there (even in the calm, evening scene as Picard reminisces about the smell of the grape harvest we get shaky handheld cam!), so maybe Kirk was right and he should never have left the Captain's Chair because he certainly seems drawn to space. And it is nice to have the 'TNG' theme come up now and again such as when he first steps aboard Rios' ship, or when he walks past the centre chair and almost sits in it, but knows he shouldn't. So there are slivers of Trek among the bleakness or superhero action scenes (though the super-quick speed of Soji rushing to prevent Romda from shooting herself, was good), and the bitter negativity and the Marvel dialogue, the way Raffi speaks and the words she uses. At least they cleared up another of the Kelvin films' blots by having a code be 'Gorn egg,' as Fake McCoy said he'd done a c-section on a Gorn in 'Into Darkness' when it makes so much more sense for a reptilian species to lay eggs!

I tried to look up Eridani-A and Beta Antares, the names of planets Raffi mentions in her Starfleet meeting with Picard, but only the latter had any previous entry in the 'Star Trek Encyclopedia' as the place Kirk claimed Fizzbin had come from (though that was actually Beta Antares IV so it may not even be the same planet, and even if it was, he invented it himself on the spot so if it is a reference it's actually a reference to nothing - but I quite enjoy such rabbit holes sometimes!). I'd like to point out that it's strange for Soji to be talking Romulan when you'd presume everyone has a Universal Translator as standard, but who knows in a 24th Century where money is mentioned? Who knows anything any more? And if all traditional Romulan houses have a false front door for visitors to go round the back, what would be the point? All the Romulans would know not to go to the fake door! It sounds like the kind of secretive thing they would do, but when you think about it, even though they abandoned logic for emotion it's hard to believe they'd be quite that illogical as a rule. At this stage of the season I felt it was neither going badly, nor well, it hadn't reached the heights it would do, nor the depths, and while I can reiterate that everything that has happened so far could have been dealt with in half of a pilot episode in old Trek money, and that it hasn't exactly shown great precision and direction, it continues to chug along without too great offence. But I still couldn't recommend it other than as a curio for those brought up on Picard and his ilk.

**