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.

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