Maps and Legends

DVD, Star Trek: Picard S1 (Maps and Legends)

Although there are no scenes with Data this time, I found myself slightly more interested in this episode and I realise this is because there are hints of the kind of series I actually want to see. I mentioned in the previous review that each of the current Trek series' is radically different from the standard Trek format, as if that isn't interesting any more, one of many reasons I fail to warm to anything I've seen, and seeing this episode again helped me understand what's missing: I want to see Starfleet, that's what Trek is all about, and even more, I really want to see Starfleet in the post-'Voyager,' post-'Nemesis' world of the late 24th/early 25th Centuries. It was a wonderful prospect to bring back such a major character as Jean-Luc Picard, but what the series proved is that life outside of Starfleet just doesn't have the same level of interest as being in the confines of the organisation. Of course the writers disagree and give us very little of that world, but what there is, I'm drawn to. Even that short glimpse of some Starfleet Security rushing in at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars, back in 2385 (I thought they said it happened in 2384 last time?), with the uniforms of that era (our first view of them, I think), on the day the androids went mad, was great. It was a blink and you miss it moment, but it made it feel like Trek in some way. The same with some of the scenes at Starfleet Command.

I was so happy with the performance of Tamlyn Tomita as Commodore Oh, a Vulcan that is as rigid and unemotional as that race used to be portrayed, and even knowing she was actually a Romulan ('Oh' dear), doesn't entirely dampen my positivity towards the portrayal. Again, it's great to see a closeup view of the current Starfleet uniform which has the large shoulders of the 'First Contact' style, but with the bright colour of 'Voyager,' and now we see close up that there is also texture to it, which the earlier uniforms didn't have (until the 'FC' version). These are all plus points in my eyes, but again, it makes me wish this were a conventional series and we were getting a starship or an installation with a Captain, a group of good Starfleet people solving problems rather than the more disjointed, troubling gang we would end up with for Picard's mission. One thing I did not like, at all, was Admiral Kirsten Clancy, whom Picard visits to appeal to for reinstatement at the rank of Captain, and a ship and crew to follow his self-appointed quest to get to the bottom of beings like Data. It showed great naivety of him that he thinks this woman will grant such a request, especially at a time when artificial life is esteemed so low, or even life in general, since she defends the Federation pulling out of helping the Romulan evacuation. I still don't understand the connection between the android attack on Mars and a back-pedalling on assisting the Romulans, but at least there is a little more clarity in what occurred.

Clancy says fourteen races within the Federation threatened to pull out unless they cut the Romulans loose, which is quite bizarre. There's no mention of the Romulan alliance of the Dominion War or the events of 'Nemesis' that seemed to suggest a new era of peace could be coming between the two galactic superpowers, they're just described as the Federation's enemy. It's not the first time Picard had run up against a superior officer with whom he disagreed, you only have to look at 'TNG' for that, most notably Admiral Nechayev - I'd have loved it if they brought back Natalia Nogulich who made six appearances as the character across 'TNG' and 'DS9.' I wonder if they had her in mind as Clancy is quite similar: an older woman, quite acerbic and unforgiving. Is Nogulich still acting? Anyway, her ugly grey uniform and her nasty un-Federation attitude, rebutting Picard's qualms with the belief that, yes, the Federation can decide which races live and die, was quite horrible. The only positive was that we get to see the period appropriate Starfleet badge first introduced in the possible future of 'All Good Things…' and continued in select other episodes that went into the late 24th/early 25th time period, so it was absolutely fantastic to see that design being used and proved that when they want to stick to canon, they can do so with aplomb! I'm not so bothered about the uniforms that went with the badges in that timeline because we could have passed them by a few years, or they might have been phased out and come back in for 'The Visitor,' or it's just of a timeline that didn't come to pass.

The 'future' badge of old Trek isn't the only important badge-related throwback as we get Picard pulling out his old combadge, the film-era version, to contact Raffi Musiker, the next character to be introduced in his growing band of misfits. I absolutely loved seeing that badge, it represents the best era of Trek, that 'Generations'/'DS9'/'Voyager' time period that was the most glittering part of the 90s golden age. It also suggests (though not irrefutably), that this badge design was used at least up until 2385 when Picard left Starfleet, as that's the one he kept hold of. It could also be that it was the one he was wearing when Data saved his life so it has special significance for him and that he kept it for that reason rather than it being his last combadge in the service. What I didn't like was Picard's terminology when using it, asking Raffi not to hang up, as if it was just a phone call! But they did a fine job recreating a classic piece of Trek design, assuming it wasn't a prop they acquired from one of the old series' or films, of course. Some of the impact had been lost by the fact it was seen in the trailer, but it still has meaning and was as delightful as the other touches brought back from 90s Trek in these first couple of episodes.

Back to Picard's conversation with Admiral Clancy: he was naive to think she'd agree, he clearly has a past with her, they know each other quite well, but at the same time he's just denigrated Starfleet in the broadcast interview he was suckered into in 'Remembrance' so she's not about to support him in any way. I don't know if she's aware of his medical condition, but the way she later talks to Oh about his babbling makes me think Starfleet know about it to some degree and she thinks he's just an old crackpot, basically. This is about the first time we see Picard being treated and considered as past it and ridiculous, and it doesn't sit well for such a noble character. Clancy comes across as exactly the kind of unfeeling bureaucrat that was all too common in Trek past, perhaps one reason Kirk advised Picard never to give up the Captain's Chair, because while you're there you can make a difference - the implication is that ranks above Captain don't make that difference, maybe they all regret moving up and getting away from the coalface of the action and rewards, sitting in their ivory (or at least very white!), towers, having to consider the wider scope rather than one ship or Captain's interests.

Clancy isn't the only one to treat Picard like a weak old man, Loris, the Romulan housekeeper showed herself to be quite scolding and disrespectful from episode one and that doesn't stop here. Even worse are the casual dropping in of rather extreme swearwords, both by Loris and Clancy. The kind of language you would not expect (at least Starfleet), to stoop to, but the way Loris says it, it makes her sound as if she speaks like that all the time and Picard never blinks an eye at such filth coming out of her mouth. 'DSC' did it first, of course, and I feel there was a bit of a backlash because they never went quite that far again. The general consensus seemed to be Starfleet officers shouldn't be speaking like that, especially not in such a casual way - it's one thing to throw out such a nasty expletive in the heart of battle or when you're about to be assimilated, and quite another to bung it into ordinary conversation, but that's a case of modern writing having much lower standards of what is acceptable. I remember seeing a news story that Patrick Stewart felt it was too much, and I agree, it's so sad how a once-proud family friendly franchise has become so mean and nasty in a misguided effort to bring in people that maybe were put off by Trek's clean-cut image. Sadly, that's the direction of travel of all media, to be more expressive, not less. At least they didn't have classic Trek characters saying such things. So far - that'll be the next step, and I'm almost surprised, considering what they did to Seven of Nine, that she wasn't mouthing off with the worst of them this season, but as I say, I feel sure it'll come, much to the current crop of writer's disgrace.

While it is painful to see Picard acting without the diplomacy and sterling good sense he used to excel at (even in 'Remembrance' he was lured into subjects he'd refused to discuss in the interview), and it's horrible seeing a once great man fall so low (though we hadn't seen anything yet, compared to how he'd be treated in later episodes), there is a small out for the writing that does make sense: he's suffering from some mental illness. It's sad that no mention is made of Irumodic Syndrome, the brain-affecting degenerative disease that caused him to act so strangely in the 'TNG' finale (set a few years prior to this series), but Dr. Mauritz Benayune, a former associate from his Stargazer days explains that things are not looking good, with a little abnormality in the parietal lobe, which I believe was a feature of the syndrome mentioned in that alternate future. The fact he's also on the vineyard as his future self was shown to be, makes it seem like time is following a similar course, tragically. Obviously this is all set up for the end of the season, one of the stupidest things they ever did, even for this generation of Trek, but I'll no doubt discuss that in great detail when I eventually get there. At this point I think the intention was to suggest that this could be one last mission for Picard, that he doesn't have long to live and whatever happens, he's going to die. It was undermined dramatically by the news he was going to be doing a Season 2, and probably a 3 as well!

It's lovely that they tie in someone from the Stargazer, but frustrating that we're just sort of thrown in there without explanation and have to piece together whatever we can from clues in the dialogue, because this makes me feel like an outsider rather than a member of the group, which Trek used to do so well. I suppose that's just part of modern storytelling and not my preference, but it would have been better if we'd known of Benayune before, but in their defence we didn't find out much about that ship or its crew so they didn't have a great deal to pull from. My suspicion is that this is a character from the 'Beta canon' of the novels, something this era of Trek has consistently connected to, which is another irritation for me as the majority of the many Trek fiction books I've read have been poor to middling, even more recent ones, few capturing the essence of Trek very well. The approach with the previous era of Trek was to ignore the novels as they weren't canon, and if you want to dip in and read some of them here and there that's up to you - they're more like an additional form of content if the episodes and films aren't enough, which is fine, and some are quite enjoyable, but the close association with some of the writers and the interest in delving into them or getting inspiration from them has been one of those annoying choices of modern Trek I am against. Still, not knowing if Benayune was new or taken from the literary expansion doesn't really matter since we never get to know him, he's just the messenger of Picard's doom (Picard asking him to lie about his medical status to Starfleet, to certify him fit for interstellar travel - what happened to the first duty is to the truth? Further evidence of Picard's mental deterioration?).

One thing that never made sense about this season, was Picard's logic about not involving his good friends from the Enterprise days. Eventually he would, in a small way, but it's frustrating that he doesn't want to risk the lives of those people he cherishes even though you don't get the feeling he sees them much and they all have their own lives to live and only makes him seem more distant from them. Again, we can put it down to him not thinking clearly due to his illness, as we can any poor decision making on his part within the season (but not going forward after that!), but it's a bit of a cop-out, a choice born from the confusing desire not to make this a 'TNG' reunion series. Why not? What have they got against the 'TNG' cast? I'm sure we'll see all of them in cameo roles if the series (and Stewart!), survive long enough, but just as it was both gratifying and agonisingly unsatisfying when they brought back the original 'Star Wars' characters in the recent Disney trilogy, what we really want is to see these people together again. That's the big thing missing from that trilogy, we don't get to have Luke, Han, Chewie, Leia, the droids and Lando all together going off on one more mission because it was about setting up new characters and most writers aren't really interested in exploring the issues of heroes in old age. At least with 'Picard' we can see that they aren't approaching it as if Picard can just act like he used to, but that is also to his denigration as rather than show up the greater wisdom and control from advanced years it's more about weakness and loss.

All that to say it was lovely to hear some of his old crew-mates names spoken: Joban, Loris' husband and fellow housekeeper for Picard, mentions Riker, Worf and La Forge, but Jean-Luc won't bring them in on this, in spite of the fact they also lost Data and have a personal stake in the quest for his neurons! It's also troubling that they don't mention Beverly Crusher since I believe she was killed off in the ongoing novels and if they are adding stuff from that non-canon series I would be totally against such a thing, partly because it stymies creativity and also because none of it needs to be taken as important. I understand from a business point of view because the novels were the only new Trek set in the 24th Century after 'Nemesis' and up until 'Picard' (aside from the connections in 'Star Trek XI'), so they may not want to upset readers by changing that continuity, but not having read most of them myself I don't know how close they stay to what had been established there. My worry came because Crusher is the only character of the main cast that was in it all the way to the end, that never got a mention in Season 1 at all. Riker and Troi both appear later; here Worf and Geordi are referenced; Picard and Data both appear, so that only leaves the dancing doctor, and just as she was largely underused in the film series, it's sad she doesn't even warrant a mention to confirm she still lives! We don't get any further information on the others from Joban so it's for us to speculate what they could be doing and where. Worf's especially of interest since we don't know if Klingons are going to follow the ugly 'DSC' redesign or stick to the traditional look of the 24th Century, but they chose to ignore the issue this season.

On first viewing I didn't like the android attack on Mars one bit. The androids are talked down to as if all of 'TNG' and 'Voyager' with there careful examination and exploration of the rights and capabilities for humanness never happened, one more reason why the utopian vision of Trek has completely evaporated. The workers (named 'Fuelies' in the end credits), are like some kind of rough working class 'Alien' types, far from the Starfleet humans we've come to see as representative of future humans, swearing, wearing ugly uniforms and treating F8, their 'synthetic labour unit' companion as if he's a lesser being - even the foreman calls them plastic people which sounds like a slur however jovially he says it. I didn't feel quite as down on the group this time round, some of them are more positive towards F8 than I thought and they did seem a little more like Starfleet, even though they apparently aren't since they don't wear Starfleet badges. F8 doesn't even have a name, but then neither did B4 (except that was a name!), so it's an odd thing to see. The androids themselves certainly look good, very reminiscent of Data, golden skin, yellow eyes, but because there's no context of where we are or where we've come from it's tricky to see how they fit in. I think they were built by Maddox at Daystrom, but I don't know, and as I said in the previous review on the subject of holograms, can we still use androids for labour after Data and the EMH showed they could become sentient? It's a confusing situation and I don't feel the writers have a handle on it, coming so late to the party and after such a long period of not exploring such ideas in Trek in favour of action. This series had the opportunity to dig deep, but I never felt like they chose to.

I still don't know why they attacked Mars, was it because of their servitude? Did Maddox program them to do it under duress? I really don't know because the series is so often unclear on details. They seemed to be activated before murdering the crews. But if it was an act of defiance for AI rights why did they commit suicide after performing the deed? At least we see Phaser beams used and used very effectively to demonstrate the sense of power and horror a beam has as opposed to the pulses favoured by 'DSC' and the recent film series, as this roaring blast of fire tears through the powerless Fuelies. I must say, the guy that went over to stop F8 from whatever he was doing must have been pretty stupid since they've just talked about how strong and powerful these androids are, and F8 effortlessly breaks his neck with one hand, not even looking round from his task, a horrific reminder of just what Data and his kind are capable of.

This was all well in keeping with established Trek and so it appeals, but then we start to head down the fantasy path so beloved of this generation of Trek: upon reviewing security footage of what happened to Picard (it looks much worse from that angle, he was blasted metres into the air as well as horizontally so it's a wonder he can even walk!), Loris and Joban go off about this myth of the real face of the Tal Shiar (are they part of it? They say only the Tal Shiar could protect him from their own and he can't go without them which implies they are Tal Shiar?), which they think is just a mask for a much older cabal. It degenerates into this weird exposition that may be true, or may be legend, and they somehow know this unknowable story that has been kept quiet for thousands upon thousands of years. I understand that they need us to have some basis for finding out this stuff, but having Picard's Romulan housekeepers fill him in on a myth that might not be true, but they have reason to believe is, was just messy storytelling. It's part of that need to have continual mystery so viewers will keep coming back, but it was just so silly. They break up the scene by intercutting with Picard and Loris' visit to dead Dahj's apartment which has been cleaned up, but Loris just happens to have some magical tech that can recreate what happened in the room like some kind of holographic residue. I mean, come one! If they have this capability then what does that mean for all future investigations? It's just ridiculous and too much, even though they try to sweep it under the carpet by Picard mentioning such tech is illegal in the Federation and Loris quantifying it even more by saying it's unreliable. I suppose built-in outs were part of Trek convention so I'm not too harsh on them, but it's all a bit too easy and the magic tech was one reason it was felt too difficult to do Trek later than had been previously established and you start to see why.

It's also really annoying that the Jhat Vash (no relation to Picard's archeology friend as far as we know!), this secret, underlying faction of the Tal Shiar (apparently), were formed to protect some deadly secret that is so terrible just learning it can break someone's mind! How silly can you get, and seeing it again only shows me a danger sign for where the series was going to go, becoming as bad as 'DSC' for ridiculous fantasy notions, far from the established world and conventions of Trek. At least we get some kind of motivation for why the Romulans are so keen to hunt down Dahj and her kind: they have no AI in their culture, hating synthetic life and needing to destroy it - later in the episode this is confirmed when Commodore Oh tells her secret spy colleague, Lieutenant 'Rizzo,' that they need to track down the location of Dahj's fellow synths from Soji. Actually, that was 'Rizzo' talking to younger brother Narek who has leeched himself into Soji's life by demonstrating loose morals put you at risk, though I doubt that was the intent of their scenes together. Originally, I didn't twig that 'Rizzo' and the sister of Narek, whose name I can't remember, were the same person, even though they mention how she's got rounded ears now. Wonder how they did that since it's easy enough to chop someone's points off, but putting them back on? It makes me think of Pel the Ferengi waiter in 'Rules of Acquisition' on 'DS9' (which I recently saw), and how she had to have fake male ears over her slender female ones, or Bob Justman's joke on Leonard Nimoy in 'The Making of Star Trek' (which I'm currently reading), and how they could pay for him to have his ears put on with plastic surgery for the duration of the series, then restore them to normal after!

The top of Starfleet Command infiltrated by Romulan, or specifically, Jhat Vash, spies, is hard to swallow, but I suppose there comes a time when you just have to accept the story choices and move on, and as I said earlier I did at least enjoy the scenes with Starfleet officers talking together, even if most of the time it's spies! Even the idea of the Tal Shiar acting on Earth, which Oh claims would be an act of war, and Loris saying even they wouldn't have the audacity to do that (which is the silly piece of logic which leads her into suspecting Jhat Vash!), makes Starfleet Security look like a joke, but then since Oh is head of Security (at least, I think she is), she can organise such things without issue. But I want to see the other Starfleet people who are getting suspicious of Oh and her dealing with them, only because this isn't a series about Starfleet we're not in on any such shenanigans, a further impression of distancing us, just as Picard is cast out. While it was interesting to visit Command, complete with Transporter gates that you simply walk through (seemingly nicked from 'Star Trek Beyond'), and holo-projections of famous starships in the lobby (were they just generic Constitution- and Galaxy-classes or were they Enterprises past - it's not clear), I can't believe in the Starfleet official who doesn't even know Picard by sight. I get that he must be young, but really! It's one of those misjudged jokes that we're supposed to think is hilarious, but only serves to pull me out of reality. The same goes for the crack Picard makes about never caring for science fiction because he didn't get it (which seems to be an in-joke about Patrick Stewart), but it's best to ignore such things because they're picking away at the integrity of the world when you start winking and nudging at the audience like that.

There are tons of references to keep track of, right from the beginning: the flashback to the Mars attack takes place on First Contact Day (which would be 5th May), a nice touch. Loris says the Jhat Vash have operated in such areas as the Klingon Empire and the Gorn Hegemony (first spoken of in 'Enterprise,' so technically a reference to that series even though we take it as read that all eras probably called Gorn society by that name). We get Andorians strolling by on the Borg Cube (there were probably some in the background at Starfleet HQ, it's just these were most obvious), and Soji befriends a Trill (but I don't think we ever saw her again). It's said that Dahj was supposed to have come from, or studied at, Regulus (another reference from 'Enterprise'), and Picard visits Raffi at her home at Vasquez Rocks, a common filming site in various Treks. This last one was a bit annoying because from the trailer you assume it's an alien planet, but it's actually the real Vasquez Rocks, highlighted, I believe, with an onscreen location title in the next episode, which again, is too much of a nudge and wink, taking you out of it. What, did she used to sell souvenirs for Trek filming sites there? It's also weird that a Starfleet shuttle would be used as a taxi to drop Picard off - why wouldn't he just beam there, or do civilians not have access to Transporters other than to main hubs like Starfleet Command? At least they got the Borg right, they looked great!

They're one thing that gets a little more context within the Borg Reclamation Project. It seems to be run by the Romulan Free State and the Borg Artefact Research Institute. The reason appears to be for Romulan profit as Narek speaks of profits from extracting the technology, so I guess Romulans still use money (they did in 'TNG'). Soji says the Cube is separated from the Borg Collective implying the cybernetic race are still out there, cemented by Narek's comment that there's no danger since once a Cube is severed the Borg see it as a graveyard. This was useful as it establishes fairly clearly that Voyager hadn't destroyed the Borg (not that I thought they had, just crippled them), in their finale as some have thought. Interestingly (and despite being another spoiled moment in the trailer), there's a sign aboard saying the facility had gone 5843 days without an assimilation, which works out to about sixteen years (by a human calendar, anyway), so perhaps there's a story there (good to see it's also in Romulan script, too!). Only, I don't think we ever really got to the bottom of it all, the Cube felt more like a piece of interest to drum up appetite for this new series rather than a genuine exploration of the race as had been done so thoroughly on 'Voyager.' The atmosphere of danger works fairly well, some music sounds like a dungeon from 'The Legend of Zelda' when they enter a section of the Cube (there was a bit of a Bourne flavour earlier when Loris and Picard are searching Dahj's data, the music, looking up stuff on computers, the cutting…), and all this talk of graveyards and the sight of former Borg created an ominous atmosphere so you're expecting them to wake up at some point. But it didn't really happen, at least not in the way we thought, there was never a threat. At least the motivation isn't solely profit (where are the Ferengi in all this!), as the plan is to reclaim the severed drones as had been done with various people from Picard to Seven, so there is an altruistic motive as well, which makes it more Trek and also gives a good reason for the Federation to be involved in the project - they wouldn't attend purely to assist Romulans sell off Borg tech!

There was plenty to pique the interest, even if this was another unsatisfactory episode from my perspective because it's still not really going anywhere. I don't mean spatially, I just mean narratively - it's all setup, it's all introduction to plot points and characters rather than being a good story in its own right, and perhaps I don't have the patience to plod through long-form storytelling when there isn't enough joy or attraction in individual scenes, there's no concluding anything it's all about leaving things open and leading you on, and that has such negative connotations for me after 'DSC,' where both seasons promise for the future, but don't deliver. It's easier to go along with, still, because of the details, but it still has't emerged into a good story, whereas a normal Trek episode would have either explored a concept in greater depth rather than skimming over things so lightly as is done here, or it would have got straight to the nub because time was tight. This is baggy and saggy, and tantalising me by showing Starfleet only makes me want to watch traditional Trek, especially knowing where the story goes. It's still not bad, but there was so much potential and it's more of a trudge than a pleasure. Oh, and I got the legends part of the title, but where were the maps?

**