The Next Generation

 DVD, Picard S3 (The Next Generation)

Considering Season 1 of 'Picard' was the final straw that broke this review camel's back and put me off writing about modern Trek, seemingly for good, it's a testament that I'm back to do it again for Season 3. In the meantime there have been worse entries in the franchise ('Strange New Worlds'), and better ('Lower Decks'), with the latter encouraging me that there were still Trek productions about which I was interested enough to record my thoughts. Thanks to 'LD' I actively anticipate at least some Trek again, as I did with this reunion season, which the series really should have been right from the start - can you imagine what it would've been like to begin 'Picard' with this rather than what we got? And as for Season 2, the cheapest, most dull and depressing in all Trek, we're going from the worst season in the entirety of Trek, to one of the best (at least as modern Trek goes), a massive step up, even while the budget took a hefty cut, or so I hear. But Trek wasn't designed for vast budgets and it never sat well with me how they were trumpeting things like travelling halfway round the world to source a particular material for the uniforms, when such minor details are of the least importance to a successful Trek story. Being forced to survive on your wits is akin to what our Starfleet heroes often had to do, even if they had the advantage of future technology to augment their chances, so plunging the writers and designers into that same form of survival has to create a more suitable atmosphere for birthing good stories.

I can't say I particularly noticed the budget-saving when I first watched the season, though you do see how certain locations are used repeatedly, but knowing what I know now, there is a certain grounded feel to things, like the gas tube that Picard and Riker spot when boarding the Eleos, Dr. Crusher's medical ship. You notice also that there are a lot of scenes of people talking in rooms rather than being full of action and special effects, to the extent that it can feel a little drawn out when compared with the economical use of time Trek used to operate within. But these things don't matter (even if they should - many of Trek's best moments are people talking in rooms!), because the tone is right: suddenly we're seeing Starfleet starships again in live action. And I know we got a smattering of them in both preceding seasons, but it wasn't the same. Despite suggesting their mission is going to be to avoid Starfleet, they do the opposite and make a plan, sorry, a 'ruse,' which takes them right onto a starship, and while Beverly warned to 'trust no one,' they do confide in Seven of Nine (or Commander Annika Hansen as her Captain rightfully demands on calling her), so we get two starships, the Eleos and the Titan-A, plus wonderful shots of the mushroom-shaped Spacedock, that classic imagery from... erm, actually it was 'TOS' films, not 'TNG.'

There is that about the episode, and season, which suggests a mashup of wildly differing eras, and which I did find off-putting. This strange desire to make all the Trek eras into some conglomeration, or a 'celebration' of Trek's past always does its future history a disservice and is something I've noticed ever since 'DSC' came along with its Kelvin Timeline-inspired set design, all shiny floors and massive windscreen on the Bridge, as if we were actually seeing something from the 25th Century or later, a slimline, sleek new vision, except the point of setting a series in a specific era should mean you recreate that era, not overwrite it! This continued with odd things like a 'TOS' Romulan Bird-of-Prey showing up in 'Picard' Season 1, 'DSC' featuring Replicators and Holodecks as standard, or 'LD' insisting on having bright, colourful uniforms and Enterprise-D aesthetics as if 'DS9' and the 'TNG' films had never happened. I understand it, it's all marketing, trying to give people what they know and expect rather than keeping strictly to what was established, and in most cases it can be explained away (there could be a 23rd Century BOP still in existence; we do see the grey-shouldered uniforms in 'LD' on other ships), but it's just one of the many irritations about modern Trek that it doesn't stay true to its source material. This season is just the same, except in this case I get the impression, because it was guided by one man's vision, Terry Matalas (and having one head at the top makes a world of difference!), that he threw in all the things he liked about Trek, no matter the era, because he had the power to do so, and maybe thought that if he likes this, then others will too.

In many cases I think he'd be right about that, but still, there are things that don't seem right: take the USS Titan-A as a prime example - its primary hull, at least from the front, is in the same style as the refit Enterprise/A from those 'TOS' films, and I don't think the aesthetic quite goes with the sleek lines of the Enterprise-E era that we're still basically in, even though the E would've been decades old at this point. Because we're actually in the 25th Century, as the opening title shows: 'In the 25th Century...' in case of any confusion. This in itself is very much a homage to 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,' something that has been paid so much homage over the years it's probably become sentient and grown its own ego! While a great film I don't feel it should have been the template for so many productions that came after it, but that's a whole other discussion. They're very definitely setting out their stall and saying they're going to be playing by the Trek rulebook. It may be a mishmash of 23rd and 24th Century rules, and in some ways it's enough that they're clearly planning to do proper Trek. But it's even in the same font, I believe, or one very close! As are the main titles, which in this case come at the end of the episode (I can't remember if they always left them for the end). And then don't forget we have the classic Spacedock, even though I don't think it was ever shown in the 'TNG' era. I could be wrong, maybe they did have the D exit it once to reuse old footage, but it's not 24th Century design aesthetic.

Not that I'm complaining, the dock is beautiful and something you notice about this first episode is that, while it never feels bogged down and slow like so many previous 'Picard' episodes, they allow time for us to see the ships and dock in space. The ships are characters in themselves so you need to give them time onscreen, and this as much as anything suggests the old masculine spirit of Trek that made it appeal to people so much, as opposed to the heavily feminine direction they took with 'DSC' and others ever since, where such details aren't important (only FEELINGS!). It's a very particular tone and style that's been largely missing in modern Trek. Men, talking generally, like machines, they like the ships, and the technical details, and that's very much in evidence here - again, we have a single mind at the top who knows what he wants to do, and does it. It also helps that we're getting a reprise of what many consider the best episode of the series to this point, 'Nepenthe' - it wasn't my favourite, but I do like a lot about it, namely, Riker and Picard together again. It's funny, they even disregard certain things, like the fact Will is actually 'Riker-Troi' since his marriage, which we discovered in that episode, but he's always introduced as Riker to the various people he meets here. I know we learn he and Deanna and their daughter Kestra aren't getting along at the moment (family troubles), but it's telling that we're back to the old Will Riker days, and he even has that same mischievous twinkle in his eyes that says he's ready for adventure. The way he punches out Jack at the end is classic Riker, or snaps at the barmaid about the D being Galaxy-class (the lore!), or grousing with old Picard... They become so engrossed in the dynamics he even calls Picard Captain when they're exploring the Eleos, slotting back into 'TNG' mode is a beautiful thing because that, more than anything, says they're bringing back the feel of the series.

There is still the problem of Patrick Stewart's advanced age, and how he has so little of the charisma and power he used to demonstrate, one of the major issues I have with the series in general, slurring his words and sometimes looking like it's a struggle, but Jonathan Frakes carries the weight of their interactions and brings Stewart up, to some degree, and you sense a new interest from him. It's sad to see flaws when you think what a great actor Stewart was, and Frakes isn't known for being a particularly amazing talent, but he so embodies his character and I like to see him standing up for his friend and former commander: when they meet Seven and she speaks harshly to Picard, he jumps on her, asking if that's how you speak to an Admiral! That recognition of protocol and hierarchy, not allowing rampant insubordination where everyone feels equal to have their say, is something else that sits well with me. The lack of those things in other modern Treks have been another great source of irks, but here we see multiple examples of procedure and protocol. Yes, the electronic bosun's whistle to welcome the VIPs aboard is another very 'TOS' film series callback, but it's also naval tradition, and one thing you can thank 'Star Trek II' for was its addition, or reminder of, that aspect of Trek, so I quite like the formality of it, the pomp and ceremony - a number of crewmembers line the corridor for inspection, and you get a variety of species among them (more on that later).

It's shown not to be easy to just hijack a starship and head off to some location in space: first you have to have a reasonable explanation for your presence, then a rationale for why you want the ship to go so far away, but in this case the protocol, the procedure actually stymies their plans as Captain Liam Shaw has a good point that he's not just going to take his ship off outside Federation space without orders, snap inspection or no snap inspection! This was actually very good captaining, he's in the right, despite his obnoxious attitude, it's just that we're seeing it from the other side, this desperate need to get to the coordinate Beverly sent Jean-Luc. Now I hated Shaw when I first met him, and I don't think I ever warmed to him as a character, despite getting to know his issues, but Picard, though an Admiral is retired, and Riker is a Captain without a ship - he's not an anomaly we've never seen before, he's actually coming from the same harsh feelings Commander Sisko had when he met Picard at the start of 'DS9.' Understanding that has made me feel more comfortable with a character that represents so much that's wrong in modern Trek: the dystopian view of Starfleet, that so many characters aren't good and kind, professional and keep their feelings in check. Not to say we hadn't had those people in all other Trek before, because we did (I always think of Commander Hobson and his prejudice against Data, for example), but the difference is there was usually a good reason we knew about in the moment, and his appearance was one of the first wrong notes coming across as unlikeable as he did.

With Shaw, he just came across as a smug, self-satisfied, disrespectful, rude fool that had no business captaining a ship, at least in that first scene with no other context. Even with the context of his personal hatred for the Borg and what Picard did as Locutus, which I felt understandable, as it was with Sisko (and what a great model to see someone following, even if it was the negative side!), the difference being that when we saw Sisko's cold wrath it was very soon after the events, only a few years later, whereas Shaw's been holding onto this thing for decades now, and that does look very bad. If he'd had a big revelation in the way Sisko did in the course of 'Emissary' it could have been amazing, and while I seem to remember he softened towards Picard and Seven, it was never this incredible and cathartic change of heart. But at least now I see where he's coming from and don't judge him so harshly despite the cavalier, sarcastic treatment of his guests on the Titan. The other part of it is it really feels like Seven's in an environment where she's not wanted, she's forced to bite her tongue, treat her commanding officer with the respect his rank affords, and while he hasn't exactly done anything to show hatred, he's very icy with her. The fact she's gone along with his demand she be known by her human name, also takes away her power - one thing I couldn't stand about the new version of the character was that she was a no-holds-barred rule-breaker, casual, off-the-cuff type, nothing like the precise, logical learner of human nature that Seven was on Voyager.

They totally ruined her when they brought her back for 'Picard' Season 1, which, if nothing else could, demonstrated very strongly what a mess these writers made: to take such classic Trek characters as Picard, Data, and Seven, then utterly pull them apart (in different ways), was a travesty of the like I almost wished the series had never existed! But right from her first appearance in this episode changes have been afoot that return her somewhat to the great character she was in 'Voyager.' She's in Starfleet uniform, and as much fun as it would have been to see her even once in the catsuit, she always did look good, look right, in the uniform. It probably helps that the current Starfleet era unis are very reminiscent of those in 'Voyager' (though don't forget they were actually a 'DS9' creation, before being promoted to the films with 'Generations'), but it also means her over the top 'individuality' is immediately reined in. She stands straighter, she looks more professional, and all round there's a better sense of the Borg drone turned Janeway protégé she used to be, which is a step up from how she'd been portrayed in 'Picard' before. My biggest beef with her this time is about her name, which seems a clear attempt to get into identity politics: I never understood why she would've rejected her human name because the point of the character was, like Data, the Doctor, or others before her, an arc about becoming more human and rejecting her Borgness. The major mistake of 'Picard' bringing her back was to go with the huge implant over her eyebrow instead of the much smaller one she ended 'Voyager' with, as if to show she'd regressed, even though she was actually extremely different, and it was a confusing dichotomy that seemed rooted in making casual viewers comfortable in case they missed the last few episodes of her prior series, giving us a generic 'modern' version of Seven.

But back to the name issue: I can understand why it would be upsetting to have your name forced on you by a commanding officer, but to me it seems like it's purely there to create disunity between them. I think it would've been a whole lot more interesting if she'd got on very well with Shaw and found it hard to disobey his order by taking Picard and Riker to the Ryton System, that she'd had to let down someone whose opinion she cared about to do it. But it's easier to have conflict from opposing views, it just demonstrates that for all the qualities this season brought, it was never quite going to get back that level of writing that made Trek great in the past. Still, rejecting her human name seems to be a rejection of her journey to humanity and a reminder of her brokenness, even if it's good to see she's got somewhere, joined Starfleet and is toughing it out under this leader she doesn't like. In his turn, I feel Shaw doesn't actually bear Seven animosity, just the Borg in general: he could have been really nasty and shown happiness or glee that she'd destroyed her career by going against his orders, because it meant he finally had reason to be rid of her, but I didn't get that sense at all, just disappointment in her, which is what any Captain would feel. What I'm trying to say is that originally I very much disliked both these characters, but that I've come to understand the situation better and it's given me a new appreciation for them, which is something that you can only get when you've seen the season through once and know what's going to happen.

The reevaluations don't stop here, however: amazingly I didn't hate Raffi! We go to M'Talas Prime (another shameless proof of Terry's power!), to one of those 'Star Wars' planets. And here we come to another bugbear of mine about modern Trek: the Starwarsification of it! I love 'Star Wars' (or at least a chunk of it...), but that doesn't mean I want it in my Trek. However, they do love their unsavoury bars or clubs, and this one is double the 'Star Wars' as it's an open air market type with little vehicles whizzing about in the neon-lit sky above. All very un-Trek-like. And of course this is where we're reintroduced to the only surviving 'Picard' original cast member, and she's apparently back to her drug junkie ways, begging and crawling to a snooty Orion dealer. But I was relieved it was all a show, and I actually felt proud of her that she was able to let the drugs fall from her hand, even though there's obviously a struggle there and she admits to her unseen handler in Starfleet Intelligence that it's difficult for her to be in this environment. But we're seeing the kind of professionalism that Raffi rarely displayed so once again they're doing restoration work on someone I could very easily have done without. If we had to have one character from previous seasons to return I would not have picked her (maybe Soji, if forced, as it would have given Data an extra little arc), but at least they immediately made an improvement on what we'd seen before. Not to say the whole scene doesn't strike the first bad note of the episode, suddenly it's all seedy and there's a load of foul language dropped in, so it's far from ideal, but at least she wasn't terrible like before!

What isn't so good, and maybe is what drags the episode down a bit to stop it from being wholeheartedly entertaining, is the usual reliance on mysteries to keep us 'interested.' What kept me interested were the interactions between characters, namely Picard and Riker, but apparently we still have to persevere with this dedication to serialised storytelling, which also apparently means we have to have mysteries and clues to uncover! I will at least give it the credit that most of what is set up in this episode is answered to some degree, and of course with foreknowledge of the season it's a lot easier to follow and see all the pieces being laid, which also leads to greater appreciation of the process. But still, Picard has to work out a puzzle of the code word that's been sent to him by Beverly. And Raffi has to work out who or what The Red Lady is. And Shaw has to work out just what exactly these interlopers are doing on his ship! Okay, maybe not the last one. Who is the mysterious young man on her ship to which Beverly seems to have a strange connection? When they're under attack she locks him away, so is he mad, simple, or in need of protection? I will say the fact Beverly doesn't meet her former friends and we're left to wonder what will happen next is a pretty good ending. We also get told by Jack (though not learning his name yet), that he's Beverly's son (a relief for me as I'd been spoiled 'Jack Crusher' was in the season and I imagined some kind of time travel would bring back a young Jack, Beverly's dead husband, even though he wouldn't be played by Doug Wert, but they'd already crossed that bridge with Icheb and Maddox, and I didn't like the idea, but no, her son's named after Jack).

The code was unlocked (obviously, or they wouldn't have made it to the Eleos), and Raffi witnesses The Red Lady being taken out. It did sound very much like The Red Angel or the DMA, or any number of other terrible season-long mysteries we've had in modern Trek (mainly 'DSC' or 'Picard,' admittedly), but it was actually much simpler than that: a statue of former Enterprise-C Captain Rachel Garrett is to have a dedication ceremony and that's where the nasty portal weapon is tested. Okay, not sure why her statue is red other than it sounds more dramatic to call it The Red Lady, and not sure why that building was the target. Not even sure where it was supposed to be, and I remember finding the whole thing rather confusing on first watch (since they don't put the planet's name up as they did for other places), other than some important experimental weapon had been stolen. But it just looked so bizarre that this building collapses, then a portal opens in the sky nearby and all this rubble falls out. All very impersonal and hard to fathom, which is the worst kind of mystery-style events. Now I know it's that weapon that opens a portal, even if it was a bit of an odd one. Why did Daystrom Station develop it in the first place? Or was it simply stored there as we'd see other technological odds and ends kept there. I did think it was strange Raffi waited till she'd actually arrived (still using the ugly La Sirena, another money-saver!), at the location of the coming attack before sending a message, but maybe comms were disrupted and she'd tried to get in contact as soon as she worked out where an attack was imminent, in which case it would have been wise to show her doing that. Even so, if an important Federation world suddenly had its comms scrambled that would be a good reason to investigate, especially as Starfleet knows this weapon is out there, presumably.

As you can see, the massive portal wasn't the only hole in the episode! There are lots of things thrown in that appear to be mere mentions, but that would go on to play a part in the story: the biggest are references to the coming Frontier Day, a celebration of the 250th Anniversary of... what, Starfleet? Apparently it's supposed to be the launch of the Enterprise NX-01, but in that case they could have been clearer! Also, Daystrom Station, which they'd be visiting, and the stolen Quantum Tunnelling weapon, but as early as the first post-title scene we have Picard talking with Laris about sending Geordi La Forge the famous painting of the Enterprise-D that I believe used to hang in his Ready Room, or one very much like it. He says Geordi's running the Fleet Museum these days, which is somewhere else we'd visit, though who'd have thought we'd be meeting one of Geordi's daughters before the episode was over! Actually, I wondered if she was a veiled joke about Deanna crashing two Enterprises as it's said her nickname was 'Crash' La Forge at the Academy, for crashing a shuttle twice, and now she's driving the Titan... Either way I found her immediately likeable, I don't know what it was about her, she just had a friendly, open attitude, was respectful to her Father's old friends, and is nothing like Ortegas, the mouthy Helmswoman on 'SNW'! There's also something of the 'it wouldn't be an Enterprise without a Sulu at the Helm' as Kirk said aboard the B in 'Generations'! I should back up a bit and talk about the episode title: for the first time (not counting 'Short Treks'), we have live action Trek with an episode title onscreen! You don't know how happy that makes me, and it's yet one more little thing that shows those behind this season had decided to do things right, regardless of what the series had been before, very heartening.

Not everything sidesteps the established 'rules' of previous 'Picard' and its roots in 'DSC,' whose roots in turn were in the Kelvin films: we still have to endure machine gun blat-blat-blats instead of Phaser beams, which is at least something 'LD' and 'Prodigy' changed, and a shot to kill still explodes targets into a puny shower of fiery sparks which has never looked good. Thinking of future events, like when they'd capture the villain, Picard stating Beverly would only kill defensively took on new meaning as maybe Picard doesn't know her any more! But I wasn't sold on the whole opening sequence - of course I'm immediately starstruck seeing Dr. Crusher again, twenty-odd years after we last had her in Trek (though technically, she did appear, and voice, a hologram of herself in 'Prodigy' Season 1 which would have been out before this, though this may have been filmed before the animation was recorded), which is momentous and wonderful and a sign of what this season is all about (and again I say, it should have been this from the start of the series!). And she looks striking, has aged very well, and is easily recognisable as the good doctor. There is that confusion over why she locks Jack in a room, we don't know the dynamic or setup on this little ship, and suddenly she's plunging for a Phaser Rifle and going all 'Insurrection' Beverly! Which I didn't mind, but knowing those masked goons were supposed to be Changelings, at least I think they were, it's a major disappointment they weren't using updated Jem'Hadar, which is what I was really hoping for (if not the occasional Vorta, too...), and they were deliberately dehumanised by those masks and grunting noises, into faceless animals for no good reason, which was all very stereotypically modern for me. I won't go into that now, there'll be plenty of time to discuss the Changeling side of the story, but even leaving that aside, what's going on with Starfleet sensors these days?

I speak, of course, about the fact the Eleos doesn't alert its Captain until the enemy is right on top of them, warning of an unauthorised docking. I'm well aware this is a small, basic kind of ship, it may not have extremes of long-range sensors, but this is the 25th Century so surely every ship would have highly sensitive scanning power. It's one of those things designed to suit the story rather than building the story around established reality. (Not to mention Beverly seems to have been sleeping to the sound of Jean-Luc's Logs - does his voice send her to sleep? At least the confusing use of a very old song was eventually cleared up at the end when Picard said he gave her a compilation of classics to listen to many years ago - one less mystery to deal with). The same could be said for the Titan as the fancy modern shuttle borrowed by Picard and Riker is away before the ship even alerts the Captain. And then at the end, in another stereotypical trope we get the foghorn announcement of the Big Bad Ship, like some tanker warning of its presence. I like to think the 'music' of that moment was actually coming directly from the Shrike (as we'll later learn it's called), a kind of triumphant, boastful 'look at me, losers' attempt at intimidation. But that foghorn is the only announcement, the Titan's sensors never pick up a ship appearing, nor does the Eleos until it's on top of them. I suppose the benefit of the doubt can be given that the nebula, or whatever those roiling clouds were (which unfortunately alerted Shaw to the hijack of his ship through sleeping next to portholes!), masked the enemy's approach, but it would be good to hear that, and maybe we will next episode, I don't recall.

I did like the look of the shuttle, all sleek and much like Voyager's Type-9, though I wasn't exactly clear on how it connected with the Eleos as it appeared to land on the back of the primary hull, yet had enough clearance for the door to come down when Picard and Riker go aboard. Maybe it was bigger than I understood it to be? I had some disappointment that the Shrike and its minion ships all had the look of the Son'a about them, the villains from 'Insurrection,' perhaps another reason I was associating with that film on top of Beverly wielding a Phaser Rifle - they had the same sandy or brown colouring with orange neons, and the crescent shape, that it was striking how similar they seemed, so it was a letdown it turned out not to be a factor in the design at all (there could have been a backstory where these Changelings made a deal with the Son'a at the time as they were active in the latter part of the Dominion War, so it could have made sense). I did wonder why the attached ship early in the episode came off the Eleos when you'd think it being within the warp bubble would mean it would go to warp along with it. The canon connections weren't going to be quite as clear as I assumed, even though the writing of this season was a lot more Trek-aware than before. I will say the ships in general this episode looked fantastic, even with my discomfort over the melding of disparate eras in the Neo-Constitution-class Titan-A. The Eleos was a cool little ship (or was it 'Ilios' as Beverly said, or 'Aylios' as Jack pronounced it!), and the Titan was fine, but I was a little sore we didn't get to finally see the original Titan in live action after it's beautiful appearances in animated 'LD,' but it was for the purposes of repurposing that would be happening at the end of the season, unfortunately (we'll get there...).

What we do get is a little bit of history of the ship and our characters, which I like to hear: it boasts Metaphasic Shields and can travel at Warp 9.99, while Shaw has captained it for five years, taking over from Captain Riker, presumably his final regular command as I get the impression we're a few years into the 25th Century (supposedly 2401, according to Matalas), and when Riker showed up with the infamous cut-and-paste fleet at the end of Season 1, that could have been shortly after he'd given up the active Captain's Chair, although this is all speculation at this point (I want more info!). Although we don't hear anything about DS9, we do get the news that DS4 has been decommissioned and Seven jumps in to say Picard meant DS11. While not a strong feature of the episode, especially compared to all the grief Picard was constantly getting in the previous seasons, he does make gaffes that belie his age: not knowing DS4 was shut down, or that procedures had changed about going to maximum warp, not reading Shaw correctly (though Riker's just as guilty, laughing along at his faux good humour before he slams the door shut in their face). I always hated that, it turned Picard into a weak character, and as I say, it's not nearly as bad here and Riker's presence bolsters him up and improves his presence, but there are still the remnants of Picard-hate in the writing, it seems.

Seven herself is a little bitter with him that he and Janeway talked her into joining Starfleet (the first of several references to her, which lead to expectations she'd show up by the end of the season, and reading comments in the lead-up to this being released, there was a definite groundswell to get Kate Mulgrew in live action, which to this day hasn't come to fruition and has sadly gone silent now). Seven's finding it tough not having the freedom she had as a Ranger when she felt things were simple, and now she can't just follow her gut, and has to take whatever Shaw gives her and follow orders, but her experiences on Voyager should have precisely prepared her for exactly this since that's what she went through, with great growing pains at first, but becoming a wonderful addition to the crew, so it's sad she's not using that experience and those memories here. She's really so far from the character I loved, but it was pleasing to see her risk her career for Picard. Maybe it wasn't such a big risk if she was questioning her place in Starfleet, but it was still a decision she chose to make and that was endearing. As I mentioned before, she's far from the only character being rehabilitated: I've already written of Shaw, and how I see he was actually in the right, and Raffi being an improvement on what we saw before, but there's one more character I couldn't stand who's given a little help, too.

Laris, the Irish Romulan was yet another character I found so irritating: I hated that they changed the convention of aliens, particularly Romulans, of being clipped and specific in their speech, maybe only having a British accent, since that has long been the convention in American films as shortcut for villainy due to our histories. But having Romulans that spoke in an Australian or Irish accent was simply terrible and made no sense at all (at least the Orion drug dealer came across reasonably well, though a shame he didn't have the cybernetic accoutrements male Orions sported in 'Enterprise'), and I didn't like that this housekeeper was telling Picard what to do, or scolding, etc. Then she turned out to be some former super-agent who could fight like a ninja, or whatever, and it was just all so ridiculous, followed by the egregious decision to have her husband killed off by Season 2 so she and Picard can one day live happily ever after, and it was just awful. I won't even go into the lookalike time agent the actress played in Season 2, which was another daft and unnecessary addition. I don't know if it's because this was her sendoff and we don't even hear if Picard kept his promise to meet up with her on Chaltok IV (which I heard as Chalnok and assumed was a reference to Chalnoth from 'Allegiance,' though he came from Chalna, and Chaltok IV was actually a Romulan research colony mentioned in 'Voyager'!), but I didn't mind her in the brief moments we have her for, coming across less pushy than before. She even endeared herself by the fact she generously encouraged Picard to go and help Beverly, even though they were rivals for his affection at different times, and she could be sending him into the arms of that rival. I could be misreading it, and when she's telling him to go she could have been hoping he'd reject her advice and stay, but she came across as genuine, and would she respect this man if he refused to help an old friend?

It was important setup as we also learn Beverly cut herself off from all her friends, including Picard, over twenty years before. I didn't like this turn of events at all, as it serves only to give an excuse for why she was never heard of before on the series, but that's what they chose to do, just like Beverly chose, and while I don't believe she'd ever have done so and her reasoning would make no sense (we'll get there...), it does at least cover the fact that there wasn't even the slip of a wisp of a breath of a mention when Picard needed a doctor he could trust in Season 1 (which was stupid in itself, doubly so that he never even spoke of Beverly). But while we do at last get Dr. Crusher back, I do have to ask - was there no medkit for her or Jack to treat her injuries, forcing her into a stasis tube? No medkit on a MEDICAL SHIP [foghorn blares]!? Physician heal thyself has greater meaning than ever in this case, though it appears to be yet another narrative device to keep the first meeting between her and Picard (and Riker), for dramatic purposes in the next episode. The stuff with the code she sent was fine, and retconning it into the events of 'The Best of Both Worlds' was a nice little inclusion, even though this 'Hellbird' virus was never mentioned in those episodes, entirely made up for this. I wasn't so sure on talk of the code they used on Rigel VII, though again, 'Myriad' doesn't have the sound of something said in 'TNG' and I'm just thinking of Rigel VII because that is something that's had multiple references in Trek over the years (famously recreated in Pike's mind in 'The Cage' and recently revisited, to average effect, in 'SNW').

I never feel quite comfortable with another ship appropriating the beloved Enterprise theme from 'The Motion Picture' and 'TNG,' it should be solely for the Enterprise, but Discovery stole it, and now Titan does, too, though at least in her case it's foreshadowing the end of the season, so that's some kind of justification. But the music in general is noticeably strong, a large part of that comes from the fact Steven Barton was aping the bold, brassy themes of both 'TOS' and 'TNG' film series' to good effect (Jerry Goldsmith is credited for his superb 'First Contact' music), and this more than anything else sells the idea of this being a Big Film, rather than a cut-price, last-dregs, one-shot chance to make something out of the mess that was 'Picard.' They wanted it to be considered a ten-part film and they tried their best to make it seem like that, and it does come across very filmic, in both the good and bad senses of that word. For example, when Picard talks about memories and old friends with Laris, the 'First Contact' theme plays gently underneath, and the music overall makes a huge difference in lifting it beyond the visuals we're seeing, even if, as I noted, you still get those modern tropes of foghorn noise to show danger, and there's a lot of tripping on tropes in this series. It was a wise and nostalgic decision to jettison the pootling 'Picard' theme of previous seasons for the far superior and touching 'First Contact' one, the 'Wrath of Khan' touchstone for 'TNG.' The graphics, hinting at all that would come, and in that clean, neat and attractive LCARS design were also a big leap up from the messy, ugly opening sequence we'd had.

I don't remember if the 'opening' credits always played at the end, perhaps to hold off on any surprise guests being credited, or to assuage the short attention spans of some viewers, but it was worth waiting for. And there is a little poignancy that's been missing from modern Trek so much, whether it be Jean-Luc looking through his things (the Ressikan flute! The Kurlan Naiskos!), and talking out it with Laris, or Riker commenting on the beauty of the Ryton System, saying it's the kind of thing they saw for half their lives, then spent the other half missing, or words to that effect. There's a sense that they're both ready for another adventure, Picard even says as much to Laris, though I'm he didn't envisage what was about to happen. Avoiding Starfleet weirdly resulted in him contacting Riker, which ended in them getting on a Federation starship, so there's still rather a lot of clunkiness to the plotting, but not as bad as it had been. Perhaps the crew on the Titan could be described as a little clunky, but we don't know them at this point: I've already given the thumbs-up to Sidney, and we see a few familiar races (the dumpy, suspicious-looking guy they oddly cut to as one of the crew in the corridor made me think I'd seen him before, but it was actually just more foreshadowing), the Bajoran, the Vulcan (unaccountably bald - that doesn't seem like the look a Vulcan would go for, not very logical), and they certainly had more character than the forgettable (though slowly becoming remembered), Bridge crew of 'DSC,' not that that's hard!

It's just that once again there's that blurring of the era lines when you see Orions, Andorians, Tellarites (regrettably the especially ugly, big-tusk warthog variety 'pioneered' in 'DSC' and used in 'Picard' before, rather than the traditional pig-snouted variety of 'LD,' 'Prodigy' and 'SNW'), all races associated much more with 'Enterprise' and 'TOS' as if they latterly took a bit of a back seat by the 24th Century - I understand that there were behind-the-scenes reasons for this lack of original races popping up, and I don't mind them being there, but I think 24th (now 25th), Century races should be more common: maybe a Cardassian or two, some Ferengi, a Klingon, a Benzite, those sorts of faces. They do show other, new races, but they tend to be very underwhelming designs, like Esmar, the round-faced, shorthaired mottled green forehead woman, who was quite nondescript. Or there was another background Bridge crewmember who looked surprisingly similar to the Changelings of old, which was a bit of a misstep as you don't want to evoke Changelings if you're bringing them back. Still, it was early days and not everyone would survive, nor does it seem likely the much-demanded 'Legacy' spinoff is going to come, so it's nothing to get upset about, just observations. It was nice that a couple of actors had been in Trek before, most obviously Captain Shaw's Todd Stashwick who'd played the Vulcan-pretending Romulan, Talok in 'Enterprise' twenty years before ('Kir'Shara'), but we also have Roc Sarabia credited as 'Human Patron' and he was 'Alien #2' in that same series ('Vanishing Point'). I do like some Trek connections, however small!

I observe that they didn't go all that much into specific lore or Trekferences as I call them, but there was some, as you'd expect. The opening pan across Beverly's things shows all kinds of items with meaning, such as her former husband's case from the Stargazer, flowers which she liked to cultivate (see 'Cause and Effect'), theatre masks to remind of her love of staging plays, and the audio Log of Picard. But while it's in your face in the sense that the camera's panning across it, it's not shouting out that you need to remember this or that, it's very much not the 'LD' school of often relying on Trekferences for enjoyment of the episode. But there are other things, like Shaw's mention of Picard and Riker's irresponsible way of commanding, referring to crash-landing (the Enterprise in 'Generations'), and that sort of thing. Maybe the biggest is when Picard and Riker meet at Guinan's bar (shame they couldn't stretch to Whoopi Goldberg for that scene, though it sets up this younger generation in the barmaid who doesn't really know much about Starfleet history or the importance of her two patrons), and we see some Eaglemoss ship models, which was rather noticeable. Either it was to get people on board because 'hey, I've got those models on my shelf!' or it was another money-saving exercise, but not the first time the makers used Trek toys or models - as far back as 'TOS' they did that, and in the battle scenes of 'DS9,' though never as in-universe models. Hard to believe Guinan would be 'selling' anything, least of all model ships as souvenirs, though the joke about no one wanting the 'fat' Enterprise-D was mildly amusing. I imagine Eaglemoss was still in business when the episode was made...

There certainly seemed to be an overflow of love for the Enterprise-D this season: Picard tells Laris the D wasn't his first starship, but was his favourite, which is one in the eye for the E. And there are other reasons we'll get to why the D gets more attention, when chronologically speaking the E would be foremost in mind at this time. Another Trekference could be the 'Conspiracy'-like way Beverly tells him in her message to trust no one, which very much brings to mind that atmosphere of paranoia created by the creatures (still unnamed to this day, which maybe adds even more creepiness to them), that could take over human (or alien), hosts and get them to do their bidding in a takeover of Starfleet. I didn't feel that same atmosphere with this season, not even one that came close to the 'DS9' two-parter set on Earth ('Homefront' and 'Paradise Lost'), because these weren't the same kind of Changelings, even though they were 'the' Changelings. We hadn't got to them yet, or any mention of the Dominion War (another 'we'll get there...' item on the agenda to come), but there are other Trekferences when Raffi searches for upcoming events. Only three come up, which suggests this is a very quiet time in the Federation calendar, but the Gratitude Festival appears, which is presumably the Bajoran event, and 'Empire Union Day,' which could refer either to the Klingons or the Cardassians I'd have thought. And not really a Trekference as such, but the episode ends with a card reading 'For Annie,' which was a tribute to former Borg Queen Annie Wersching from Season 2, who'd died recently, which was a nice touch from the production.

It was strange to see Picard wearing glasses to write, is he another Captain Kirk, and allergic to Retinax? You'd think such things would have been preventable with all the marvels of technology they had at their disposal, not to mention that it's easy to forget this Jean-Luc is actually an android copy with the memories implanted, though they wisely ignore this bizarre fact for the most part! (Another very stupid addition from serial Trek-wrecker Akiva Goldsman, the man who poisons the cradle, rules the Trek world... At least he wasn't involved in this season, or so I believe!). Picard's hearing certainly isn't at fault as he can hear the chirp of his old 'TNG' combadge stashed away somewhere (though I'm sure he said it was from twenty years ago when it would be more like thirty). It was almost a signatory moment, mirroring the start of Season 1 when he got out his film-era combadge, only this time they're saying the series is what we want to pay tribute to, less so the films, even though they were making it as filmic as possible with the meaty music and all the rest of it. I did enjoy his conversation with the house computer, making a rhetorical question to which the computer replies "Unknown," which was all very Trekky, even though it's no longer futuristic to have a computer in your house you can talk to. Which is weird to think. And lastly, the series joins the bandwagon of the signature 'Star Trek' franchise flash at the beginning with the ship of the series doing a quick flyby, only I wasn't sure at first if it was the Enterprise-E or the Titan-A until I paused and rewound - it's because there are similarities there, but it makes much more sense to be the Titan.

That was the first episode, the first part of ten, and while I wasn't enthused when I first saw it, and can't exactly say I was this time round, either, I felt it was more promising on second viewing. It helps to know what happens to various characters and I was pleased to discover things about the ones I disliked that made me appreciate them more, and ever since first watching the season I've been looking forward to dissecting it and pinning it up on a wall for all to see. Because unlike most 'DSC' or 'SNW' episodes, while it may not be thrilling stuff, while it may be shot very gloomily and darkly, it has plenty, more than sufficient, for me to take note of and examine or speculate about, and that makes for something that's worth reviewing rather than being entirely bored and annoyed about as with the others. I only hope the succeeding episodes improve on second viewing, too, and while I can't say this was exactly a good episode, I didn't mind it, especially now we know this season is likely to be the last ever to be remotely evocative of the Trek that came out of the Golden Age, thanks to Paramount reducing its output, and so I will try to accept it in that spirit.

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