Impostors

 DVD, Picard S3 (Impostors)

Lovely to see Ro Laren again, however briefly it turned out to be. I never thought Michelle Forbes would return to Trek after her character defected to the Maquis in the penultimate 'TNG' story, 'Preemptive Strike,' one of those threads that was dropped in at the end of the series where Picard has something to feel aggrieved about, but which was never to be resolved. And since Forbes turned down the major (!) role of Kira Nerys in 'DS9,' it appeared her contribution was at an end. Yet she continued to work in TV, and I most recently saw her in the Bourne spinoff, 'Treadstone' that never went anywhere so I knew she was still active and working in TV, but even so, her reappearance was a surprise. When I first saw it I wasn't completely certain it was her, as despite Forbes not changing much over the years, still having that long, thin face, the hair didn't look quite right. Now I see that it's strange there's no grey in it, but at least seeing her relatively recently meant I knew it was her. At the same time it could have been a Changeling spy as we're meant to suspect (and which would bear out later in another big guest star's first appearance), and having that prior tension of betrayal helped to make the paranoia more realistic, even to the point that they both recognise the pain in the other which cements their trust in each other. The moment Picard admits he trusts her was probably the highlight of the episode, but even as great as having Ro back, I still had some problems.

Part of it stems from the strange way they deal with the Maquis. It's wonderful to hear such things again, so long after they were created, a bedrock for 'Voyager,' resolved in 'DS9,' but it was all a bit vague here. Ro claims she turned herself in after years with the Maquis - it makes it sound like a long time, but then you realise the Maquis were annihilated by the Jem'Hadar in the latter half of 'DS9,' so it could only have been around three years. And rather than say she just left them, which doesn't make any sense, it should have been because all her friends were killed and the organisation destroyed so she had nothing left but to go back to Starfleet. So although they're taking up the mantle of plots and races from 'DS9' I didn't get the impression they were entirely aware of the fine details, and in a season which was the first to bring back the Dominion as a possibility, not to be clear the Maquis was utterly slaughtered by them was an oversight, and in fact it almost sounded like the Maquis still existed, but are no longer considered an enemy! I'm not saying there couldn't have been a handful of colonists who weren't hunted down by the Dominion's foot soldiers, but the way they were talking didn't quite ring true to the narrative we knew from 'DS9' and 'Voyager,' and though it's only minor, such oversights rankle.

It also seemed to me they were undercutting Ro's guilt about abandoning the Enterprise and betraying her Captain, whom she swore an oath to serve under, by saying it was a little bit on both sides, Picard as much to blame for forcing Ro to live under his 'relentless judgement,' as she puts it, but the way I remember Captain Picard was as a very just and fair man who gave Ro a second chance which she threw in his face so it sounds like she's made up a story in her head to help justify her own guilt and Picard, being so old and feeble, just sort of has to accept her side of things and ridiculously asks her forgiveness at the end as she's about to die! Now I will say that coming to an understanding is a very Trekky result, and often missing from the spirit of modern Trek so overall I'd say it was well worth all the aggravation between them to see their differences resolved and able to work together. If there's another complaint it would be that Ro doesn't get enough time, just a few conversations - I knew as soon as they showed the shuttle travelling out of Titan she was going to die. They got that visual language right, at least, as you wouldn't show that otherwise - so bravely running a suicide mission into the USS Intrepid's Warp Nacelle when there was no other way off her shuttle with a bomb implanted and about to go off, was a typically heroic act worthy of Starfleet. At the same time you'd think the quick intelligence of said Starfleet would have enabled them to save her. I know Geordi's not there to find a tech solution to the inability to beam her off, and there was so little time, but it was just our heroes standing around looking shocked rather than coming up with a way to save her.

Interestingly, according to Terry Matalas he did plan to show her being beamed away so we knew she didn't die, but for some reason they didn't do that, though of course he could just be trying to placate fans after yet another 'TNG' guest returns only to be killed off (as happened in Season 1 with Hugh, Maddox, and from 'Voyager,' Icheb, and sort of Season 2 with Q), but it's a real shame we couldn't have added her to the roster as the main cast continue to draw closer into the same circle, however slowly (this time there's no new addition, but Worf finally speaks to Picard and Riker via screen). It would have been lovely to have Ro join the rest of the cast, and while we're at it, Wesley, and maybe a time displaced Tasha Yar... Okay, it could get overcrowded and force out the minor recurring players like the Titan's Bridge crew, but they aren't exactly letting us get to know these people, as evidenced by the fact the only time we really get a scene where it appears we're about to see them interacting together (specifically Esmar and Mura), it's actually just one of Jack Crusher's daydreams of violence as he murders everyone on the Bridge! Even Sidney's starring moment was to throw up at sight of her own dead clone body. So rather than actual development they prefer melodrama and mystery to prevail, a common problem in modern Trek taking cues from modern film and TV productions rather than doing what it always used to be so good at: straightforward character interaction.

It does seem hard to believe neither Picard nor Riker had ever heard Ro was back in Starfleet since she was so infamous - the first time round she was infamous when she joined the Enterprise, so second time would've made her even more notorious than that great mutineer of history, Michael Burnham (let's quietly draw a veil over that - we can fortunately pretend 'Discovery' doesn't exist during this season!). That's another reason it gave me the impression she returned to Starfleet many years later, because otherwise Picard was still active in the service. I know she was recruited into Starfleet Intelligence eventually, but it still doesn't tally that her return would go unnoticed, but I suppose that's the loophole they might use if they were to flesh this out beyond the few lines of dialogue we got here. And it was Riker who said it was thirty years ago Ro did what she did and the Maquis are no longer an enemy, which is true, but he should've said no longer exist! I did like that the old 'DS9' lore about dealing with Changelings is drawn upon: Seven (who barely features in this episode - shame she never got to meet Ro), says that since the Dominion War every crewmember passes through an internal imaging chamber, which makes sense, even if they were at peace with the Changelings post-war, mainly thanks to Odo, or at least that's the implication will happen at the end of 'DS9.' And of course Ro would keep a knife in her boot, that's exactly the sort of person she is - ideal for doing the old hand slit to show they bleed, except now we're learning this crop of Changelings can mimic internal organs and even blood, which only reverts to its natural state under 'intense dissection,' as Beverly puts it.

We'll eventually learn these are experimental Changelings, or Changelings that have been experimented on, though despite all that it never seemed that believable, and it really smacked of 'Battlestar Galactica' and how these machines could now pass themselves off as real humans (a series Michelle Forbes was an important part of). I prefer it when Trek forges its own path, and though there are only so many ideas and stories that can be told before appearing to duplicate something else, Trek used to be so good at making its own way. Here, there's supposed to be this atmosphere of paranoia, growing uncertainty and fear, but even on original viewing I never felt that, despite all Ro's talk of Starfleet being compromised at the highest level. It had the sound of 'Conspiracy' and I'm sure I entertained thoughts of those creatures coming back, but it would have been overkill to have Changelings and parasite bugs working together. These Changelings always come across as rather basic and stupid, too - even when there are four of them (four! The Dominion did so much damage with those kinds of numbers in the 'DS9' days and now they're just grunts!). They just look angry and foot-soldiery as if they're the Jem'Hadar - there was also the merest hint that the masked crew of Vadic are indeed Changelings since when the fake Security officers go to find Jack, they make a slight gurgling noise which we've only heard on Vadic's ship. Why? Who knows, presumably to do with the effects of experimentation, but if only Starfleet knew they could make a gurgle detector and smoke them all out!

The lack of intelligence and sense in these Changelings is a major failing in the season, and I know we do find out they aren't ordinary members of their species, but it doesn't matter: they're always going to be compared to the only Changelings we ever knew, which like everything in 'DS9,' were well, shall we say, 'fleshed' out and hence had more menace. Now they have flesh, they're less fleshed out - there's the irony! That's why they should never bring back 'DS9' because it's almost the only untouched area of old Trek that modern Trek has yet to fully exploit and demonstrate just how far removed from great writing they are. It is better writing this season, I even like some of it compared to the first two seasons, but it still bears the scars of modernity that were baked in from the moment 'DSC' chose to follow the style of the Kelvin Timeline films in both look and structure - doesn't matter how beautiful and ornate a house on sand is, it's still going to sink. Likewise, it doesn't matter how shiny and dramatic, or how many good connections to old Trek they make, it's built on weak foundations. One of those that's weakest is not knowing their own reality: Trek was supposed to be a Utopia, as misguided as that idea is in real life, Trek isn't real life, it's an escape, an alternative reality to enjoy, but far too often that has been tarnished and turned into a Dystopia.

There are more examples in this very episode, one of the most irritating being the Vulcan crime lord, Krinn. Krinn - it doesn't even sound like a Vulcan name, and if he'd been a Ferengi it would have made a lot more sense (maybe originally it was, which would explain the disconformity with the name as it does sound more like one of theirs), but we get yet another not-very-Vulcan Vulcan. They seem to think as long as they have them say, "Fascinating," or speak about logic that's all you need to do, but it's about speaking flatly without any emotion in the tone and actors now just don't seem able to do that! It's bizarre. And I know we've had all kinds of Vulcans before: gunrunners, serial killers, smug baseball-playing opponents (to name the three standouts from 'DS9'!), and they can always twist logic to whatever they want to justify, but Krinn's statement that there can be no utopia without crime, and that an organised criminal element is logical was utter nonsense! If it was truly a utopia there would be no need for crime because everyone would be well-adjusted and have all their needs met. And just what is the motivation for criminal enterprise when there's no money? Power? The ability to tell people what to do? Then we even get Krinn displaying overt emotion when the smell of Worf's Klingon blood, "Makes me sick!" he grimaces. So he's clearly a very poor Vulcan, yet another, and it's depressing. If he'd been an extremely stoic, repressed example (you know, as they're supposed to be?!), then I could at least accept him if he gave good reasons for his actions, flawed as his logic would be, but perhaps the point is that he's unbalanced, which is why he'd end up in that position.

Interesting that he claims he and Sneed grew up together as brothers as it's hard to believe a Ferengi and a Vulcan getting on (maybe that's the utopian part, only it led to crime!), so perhaps we can justify Krinn's name and behaviour if we speculate he was brought up by Ferengi on some colony? It's a reach, but even if we can accept Krinn's in-universe story, it doesn't mean the writers had to write another un-Vulcan Vulcan. Why can't we have actual Vulcan Vulcans, it's not that hard: look at T'Lyn on 'Lower Decks,' there's a recent example. But 'Picard,' even at this late stage with a dramatic overhaul, was still stuck in its own mired past that it could never pull itself out of. I'll say one thing for Krinn, and that was the realisation that what I took to be scratches under his eye, was actually a tattoo of Vulcan text - I was watching the DVD version and his scenes all take place in poor lighting so it wasn't until the end I noticed the musical note appearance of these lines and recognised Vulcan script. Not that it makes any more logical sense for a Vulcan to have a tattoo, but it was a nice touch and sense of detail. Shame about everything else to do with him! Something else I didn't like about the scene was how cavalierly a mobile holo-emitter is thrown in as if Starfleet uses them all the time! The Doctor's emitter on 'Voyager' was 29th Century technology brought back in time, and while it might be possible for Starfleet to reverse engineer it and create more, surely that would be a major temporal violation ('mind you, how do we know the Doctor didn't invent the thing,' to paraphrase Scotty in 'Star Trek IV,' not a film known for its good canon sense!), and would the Doc even allow his mobility to be impaired for the sake of research and development? But in the same way holograms are just chucked in whenever in modern Trek with no sense of the progression the EMH made and the impact his homecoming might have had on the technology, the emitter is just there for a cheap gag that doesn't even work out - Raffi's caught anyway!

I know Trek doesn't always have to be serious and sober (even though that's generally my favourite brand), but treating Trek tech like that for a trick does the whole history and fidelity a disservice. And I know it could be said that it's all just there in service of a good story, but the reality of the universe is what matters, especially when we don't tend to get good stories, but rather merely adequate ones. I could also complain about Worf claiming his death at the hands of Raffi was worthy, in the most un-Vulcan-like display of pleasure in violence and the entirely illogical pursuit of gambling when Krinn sets the pair against each other, or be killed, was not honourable, it was ridiculous - for one, we'd already seen him best Raffi quite easily once he'd had his fill of a workout on La Sirena (the bit where he holds off her furious attack one-handed was possibly the coolest Worf moment this season!), and what honour was there in a forced fight to the death by criminals? Obviously this complaint is retracted because it turns out it was a ruse (smells of trailer bait to me!), for him to then take out Krinn's gang and threaten Krinn's life. For a guy that's supposedly a pacifist... no, not even going to dignify that with finishing the thought! It was nice to hear him say, "Today was a good day to die," even if it really wasn't, and also mentioning Kahless' name as the great Emperor's technique of regulating the heartbeat to near imperceptibility is what allowed him to play dead so effectively. Although it was a big risk since Krinn may have shot a hole through him just to make sure! And I was expecting it to be about Klingons having redundant organs, which Raffi had deliberately plunged her knife into in order for a display of blood, but not actual life-threatening injury, but no.

It did make me wonder how Kahless passed on this technique. Does every Klingon that reads his texts (they always have texts), know this secret? Or was it actually something the clone of Kahless, whom Worf met on 'TNG,' invented himself and passed on to the son of Mogh? Whatever the answer, Krinn proved to be an unworthy adversary, and needing to go to him to get a device that would allow them entry to Daystrom Station seemed to be a very roundabout way of moving the plot forward. As much as I love seeing Worf, I'm not here to see him tame and mentor Raffi, I want to see him back with his 'TNG' friends, and we're halfway through the season by this point so it very much feels like a story dragged out - not in the way 'DSC' Season 4 felt where almost nothing developed, and I'd certainly put this season head and shoulders above every other live action Trek of the modern era, but you can see them dragging their heels - once again we reuse the M'Talas neon streets set, because apparently everything happens there. And there's also the Guinan's Bar set where Ro and Picard have their proper conversation ("You do remember Guinan, don't you?"). Perhaps the only trope we don't get is that this is the first episode of the season not to begin with some pop music accompaniment post-title, for which I was grateful. As I was that Picard, Riker and Worf finally get to speak - a great reveal that Ro was his handler, as he was Raffi's, and great use of Ro's Bajoran earring (as well as discussion for why she's not wearing it after all that business of it being necessary on 'TNG'). And this must be the first time we'd ever heard Bajoran spoken (or at least with subtitles - there were prayers and such said on 'DS9' without translation, and in fact on 'Voyager' - 'Repression').

There were other fun Trekferences, too, such as the Klingon theme playing during Worf's training with Raffi (the music has generally been excellent all round this season), and then a list of... what was it? Possible associates of Sneed, or people in criminal circles that Worf knew? Seeing 'Morn of Luria' onscreen was a bit like back in 'DSC' Season 1 when Saru brought up a list of the top Captains of Starfleet and Jonathan Archer and Christopher Pike were both on there! But then there's Brunt of Ferenginar and the possibility that they were going to meet Jeffrey Combs reprising that role would have been amazing - it felt positively cruel to dangle that possibility in our faces and then end up going to Krinn! And they seem to absolutely adore Thadiun Okona (of Omega, apparently), as he gets yet another Trekference after appearing in both 'Lower Decks' and 'Prodigy.' I mean, I could have done without him showing up in live action, but at the same time it would have been twice as good as Krinn, if not more. And prize for most obscure Trekference goes to: Larell (apparently of Renhia - new information on a one-time character from thirty years ago - beautiful!), as an associate of Morn that only showed up once, in the 'DS9' episode 'Who Mourns For Morn?' (a lot of 'DS9' stuff, which is nice - interestingly, in the 'Star Trek Encyclopaedia' she comes just above a reference to Ro Laren, so I wonder if that's where the idea came from, a writer checking Ro's bio and getting further inspiration?).

It must also be noted that Picard mentions Admiral Janeway, the second time her name had cropped up so far this season, and another cruel tease considering she never did appear, though whether for contract negotiations failing or Mulgrew wanting something meaningful rather than one scene with Seven, I don't know. Michael Eddington's name wouldn't have gone amiss in all this talk of the Maquis, too! Sometimes Trekferences can be more disappointing than fun shoutouts, because it makes you wish for something else, but hey ho, that's the way it goes, at least these people were acknowledged in some small way, which seemed impossible only a decade ago (and looks increasingly unlikely as Paramount bleeds cash). One thing I appreciated, at least in part, was the formal handover of command from Riker to Shaw, despite continuing to be an obstinately unpleasant fellow he does give us more Trekferences, though in opposition to Riker and Picard hoping for leniency from Starfleet since they've saved the galaxy a few times - he cites the Enterprise-D's saucer section being dropped on a planet, Picard 'snogging' a Ba'ku villager against the Prime Directive, and the Devron System time paradox from 'All Good Things...' I'll give him the first and last, but we never actually saw Picard kiss Anij in 'Insurrection,' it was deleted from the film, so unless Shaw has a bootleg copy with additional scenes reinserted, that never happened! Nor was it a Prime Directive issue: the Ba'ku were spacefarers who'd given up a technological way of life, so it comes across as Shaw trying to be snide and nasty, which seems to be his coping mechanism since he's had very little power over all that's happened to him and his ship. Not that that excuses him, he continues to be a thoroughly unlikeable character. Which leads me to Jack, as usual, who isn't on the same level, but continues to be annoying, this time upsetting his Pa by saying Starfleet isn't for him (I agree, let him go off and be a Traveller or something, that's how they got rid of Wesley, and Wes was actually not so bad compared to this guy!).

I didn't get why his medical activities are considered criminal, either, even if they aren't officially sanctioned. It also made no sense for Seven to give him a Starfleet uniform so Security from the Intrepid couldn't track him down, but even before we see the fake Security officers going along with a PADD featuring headshots of him, I was thinking they'd recognise his face! And how did he get to be Jason Bourne, taking out four Changelings on instinct and with the greatest of ease? His ultimate reveal as a Borg transmitter, or whatever daft essential he was to them doesn't explain that, nor his dark daydreams of death and destruction, though I can at least see now that the red branches or veins that permeate these visions do have a similarity to Borg lesions (seen best when they cover Esmar's face). One major mistake, unless it was a deliberate misdirection, was having Jack's eyes glow red. If you're playing with 'DS9' connections, especially to do with the Dominion, not to mention bringing back a high profile Bajoran character, the immediate implication to a Trekker is going to be Pah-Wraiths. I have to assume they meant us to think that way so as to continue to keep the Borg's involvement hidden, but if so it was a poor decision (and if not, they don't know the subject matter as well as they needed to!), just like teasing Morn or Brunt and then giving us Krinn, except this was a key component of the season. Very unwisely done, but another example of 'mystery' trumping story or plain sense in presentation, just another example of modern storytelling preferring sensation, designed to keep you guessing, which suggests even the best of this era are going to be harder to rewatch over the years, as I've noted in these reviews with how plodding the overall plot has been.

One other thing I did like was in Picard's trying to ignite a spark for Starfleet in Jack's future when he says it's built on the ideals of reason, so different to the emotional connection we're more often meant to be drawn to, but which is less attractive in its overdone nature. Reason is something all these Treks could do with a big dose of! As they could with developing characters - we see Beverly and Dr. Ohk working together, now side by side as colleagues, Ohk apparently resigned to the fact this intruder has come in and taken over her Sickbay, Morgue and whatever else - but we were robbed of any kind of moment showing them coming together and Ohk accepting Crusher, the kind of little detail they would have worked in, in the past, but which gets trampled underfoot in the race for more mystery and 'suspense' over the nature of Jack or the Changelings, the melodramatic stuff winning out over little scenes of interaction that should be there to fill out the reality of the environment. There's something about Ohk I like, maybe that she seems so accepting and not angry with Crusher, but even so she's barely allowed a line in their interactions and it may as well have been Beverly alone doing the autopsy on the Sidney Changeling. At least they discover these Changelings can pass the 'traditional blood test,' as Beverly put, which I liked (even though the concept, again, is too 'BSG').

We get what I think is our first look at Daystrom Station, in all its Starfleet glory, much like the Argus Array we'd seen before, though would a Starfleet facility really be 'manned' purely by a sophisticated AI? Especially after the debacle of 'DSC' Season 2 where the (groan), Section 31 facility was the same, and that didn't work out well... And were they drones fixing the hull of the Titan (even louder groan), I just hate that Starwarsification! And why are Phaser bolts so irritating! It really does get to me, these blat-blat shots. Ugh! Humph! Grump! Yes, I take this stuff far too seriously and that's why I can't quite bring myself to rate this episode higher, although I will say I would put this at just about top of the episodes so far this season, despite all the niggles, nitpicks and 'nnoyances that detract for me. Not having Vadic helped again (though they'll shortly be 'rectifying' that, unfortunately), and it's not that there are no great moments, either - take the escape from the Intrepid, this beautiful, swanlike ship shape (although why isn't it an Intrepid-class, the same style as Voyager, which would have been more exciting to see - I know it's decades later and there's no reason why there wouldn't be yet another Intrepid, after at least three of different classes before it, but still...), that reminded me of the last-second warp-out in 'Generations' as the system is consumed by an exploding star. Except it was directed from the wrong angle for maximum tension: from the Intrepid's view as it fires torpedoes and at the last moment before impact the Titan warps away. But it's like in old films and TV when they show a car coming towards or going away from the camera and it makes the action seem slow, whereas seeing it from the side (like 'Generations'), gives it that instant excitement. A small thing, but it sums up the episode for me: nearly there, but not.

**

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

 N64, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (1997) game

October marked my N64's 25th Anniversary so I had to play something on the system, preferably that I hadn't revisited in a while. I was surprised I hadn't thought of 'Turok' before, and even more surprised to realise I'd never replayed the game after initial completion in early 2001! Most of my N64 games, especially in the first-person shooter genre, had been revisited in the last decade, or at least sometime in the 2000s, but not this one. The main reason was probably the fact it required a Memory Pak to play and first time round I'd had to start again when the unofficial Pak malfunctioned, losing all my data, forcing me to restart, so perhaps I'd unconsciously blocked the game from memory. Except I hadn't, I'd always had quite fond memories of it, vaguely remembering big dinos attacking as I circumnavigated the outer walls of a huge city, or travelling across treetop bridges with a powerful energy crossbow-type weapon, or the simpler runs through jungle scenery shrouded in fog where you were more likely to meet the screaming form of a man charging towards you out of the mist than actual dinosaurs! But though I'd thought I'd replayed it at some point, I hadn't, and it was ripe for a revisit, especially now I'd bought official Memory Paks.

It always fascinates me that these artificial worlds, existing only in the code of a plastic cartridge live on while time and the world changes around them, and perhaps that's one of the great appeals of retrogaming: to return after so long, to travel back in time years or decades before and find the same world unchanged within. When I do replay I tend to make it more worth my while by doing more than I did originally, or selecting a tougher difficulty, and that was the case here - originally I would have played on the standard level, so this time I chose Hard and expected a really tough, probably long, challenge. Actually, I found it pretty straightforward, and while still somewhat of a challenge, with save points taking a while to reach, even so, it wasn't anywhere near as harsh on me as I expected, completing it within a month. 'Turok' was one of the three UK launch titles, I believe, and I can imagine it being a real standout experience back then for its fast, smooth gameplay, chunky weaponry and pleasingly robust sound design. But I came to it having begun with the best, 'Goldeneye,' so it was never going to match up to the detail and freedom of that early triumph. It's very much rooted in retro style, mixing FPS with platformer, collecting tokens to earn extra lives, picking up ammo, and while the jumping around isn't pixel-perfect, it does take some getting used to, especially when there are so many bottomless drops to plummet into and die.

I found the best technique was to tilt my view downwards during my jump so I could better see the approaching platform, but I still made many fatal errors, especially in areas where you have multiple jumps (like the memorable area of square pillars at the end of the Ruined City of Level 3, something I still had vague memories of over twenty years later for the trial of losing so many lives there!), though the game isn't as brutal on the player as I'd thought, usually featuring a save point just before so you can try it as many times as you need. The main compliment I would pay the game is the quality of its atmosphere. The infamous fogging (cleared out of the technically superior sequel), was a result of Acclaim/Iguana still learning to master the N64's innards, but a lot of the time it served to heighten the tension as vague shapes would appear, usually heading straight for you. Though the game was largely a linear layout it did a fine job of making you feel you had options, and encouraged exploration in order to find new weapons, vital ammo (one of the things I imagine made Hard mode tougher must have been less ammunition, as I was close to running out a number of times), health powerups, and the vital Keys required to unlock each Stargate (I mean Gateway...!), as well as one piece of a unique special weapon called the Chronoscepter that was hidden within each level, often near the end.

Usually I find the stage in games when you have to revisit levels and search out the missing collectables or complete tasks you'd bypassed on first run, to be the more enjoyable part, but for some reason, while I still enjoyed the challenge of locating every missing Chronoscepter part (the complete weapon very useful in the final battle), I didn't enjoy that aspect as much as going through the levels the first time. Maybe it's because the lands are fairly large, and become much emptier when most of the creatures or men you've killed off don't regenerate - not that I wanted them to, as sometimes returning to levels was necessary merely for the sake of picking up much needed ammo, and occasionally life tokens. But it did make the levels a little dead and merely a case of forensically exploring every nook to make sure I hadn't missed a tunnel or a cliff-edge ledge to drop down to. In most cases I was able to find everything first time, but not always, and increasing the sense of player control came from the ability to skip ahead to levels out of sequence if you'd found those Keys, enhancing the illusion of non-linearity that otherwise was pretty much the case. Assisting greatly in the search was a simple plan view line map with different colours representing parts of the landscape, blue for water, or brown for caves, pointing out important features like save points.

Having a map that could be switched on with the tap of 'L' was very helpful and made things a lot easier and quicker since due to fog it was easy to become disoriented, not something you want when some enemies do regenerate every so often, so you didn't want to be wandering round areas you'd already explored only to waste ammo on attackers that would keep coming back. The trade-off with the map was that it was a distraction, for while it didn't obscure vision too badly since it was all lines, you're still called to concentrate on both the map overlay, and the actual environment behind it, orient according to the map, keep track of enemies, deadly drops, and what weapon you're using. It was certainly a skill that developed, and I'd be flicking it on and off, or charging about with it on, so that by the later stages of the game it was second nature and a vital tool in the armoury. Another vital tool was the diagonal jump. I don't know that I'd have worked this feature out for myself if I hadn't read the manual where it's mentioned, but it was an absolutely vital skill to master: jumping normally could get you a fair distance, but pressing forward and a sidestep 'C' at the same time gave you an even greater leap. Like the map, however, it had its pitfalls, since it was harder to control and see where you were going in such a jump.

That's one of the things about the game which really worked for me, having to learn skills beyond the usual circle-strafing or observation, and the environments were pretty well designed to take advantage of a player's growing ability. The main skill needed was accurate aiming, also something tricky to master with the analogue stick and no onscreen target to aim with - most weapons had a wide blast radius, be that the trusty Shotgun (the multi-shot Automatic version of which became my standard weapon of choice), or the Tek Arrows that exploded on impact, and the series has always been known for its oversized weaponry. On Hard you're really forced to conserve ammo as much as possible so you learn what works best for each target and its a trade-off between how much ammo you're going to use up and how much health you're going to risk. Health was another major issue as you start at 100 hit-points with the ability to add them, up to a total of 250. The most common health pickup, these little '+' symbols, were 2 hit-points, but can be added beyond your standard 100, while other pickups were 25 or the full 100, but would only fill you up to that 100, unless you found an Ultra Health which I think added 100 to whatever you had. Once all hit-points are gone you die, returning to the last save or checkpoint, and though a very old system, it worked.

The life tokens could be collected to add an extra life for every 100 tokens, although, like a cat, you're limited to nine lives, after which, if you touch a life token an invincibility code appears on screen. I liked the idea of these cheats (you also get some for completing the game), though I was never interested in using them, preferring the 'purity' of my own abilities to complete the game. Standing in the way of that were many foes to defeat, including the occasional Boss, in keeping with the creaky old style, ranging from your nemesis' lieutenant, to a full-size augmented Tyrannosaurus Rex. If you thought you were going to encounter full-sized dinosaurs at every turn you'd have been disappointed - it's not really a dino-hunting game, more of a survival experience with lots of little adversaries chipping away at your health as you try to navigate the environment, sometimes taking risks to uncover more pickups. But you do take on some dinos, including the mighty rocket launcher-wielding Triceratops, which were quite impressive compared to the general riff-raff and cannon fodder. Oddly, it was the little critters, skittering bugs or leaping froggy things that caused the most bother and through which I wasted the most ammo - the bugs rush across the floor and are so flat they're almost two-dimensional, requiring more precise aiming until they're up close and leap at your face, while the frog/lizard creatures bound haphazardly along the corridors of their chosen habitat, the caves.

A great sense of place is achieved through sound, with the drip-drip of dank caves, the rushing of waterfalls or the distant thudding of larger enemies, and while it's all taken for granted now, I can put my mind back into the late-90s and see how impressive it all is. A good mix of environments, too, with natural areas of jungle and cliffs, to travelling creepily down under the earth into tomb-like structures, high in the treetops, or into the Campaigner's high-tech stronghold, it's a game well worth playing. There are natural criticisms to be made, not just about the overriding fog (which I've already made a case for), but also the artificial intelligence, which is really just creatures that rush at you and have very simple attack patterns, but I wouldn't say it took away from the adventure - it's not really so much about the shooting and battling as it is about the navigation and exploration, and though the levels weren't quite as vast and tough to get through as in my memory, they were still sizeable. You get a sense of how they aren't quite so big once you've dispatched most of the enemies and run through from the starting point, as when you know where you are and where to go it takes a lot of time off the journey. There's even a Training option included to help players get to grips with the game's way of doing things, because that's the other thing, the controls are quite different to most games: you move using top and bottom 'C' buttons, while looking around or aiming with the stick, jumping with 'R,' and, naturally, shooting with the 'Z Trigger.' But it's movement that takes getting used to.

There also isn't the weapons wheel of subsequent instalments so you have to cycle up and down through all your weapons to find the right tool for the job - for example, you might not want to use the Grenade Launcher in the confines of a cave as you can damage yourself, while the best way to kill the bugs is to slash at them with a knife as they come close. Enemies who wait in the distance or snipe at you from alcoves are best offed with the precision of a Tek Arrow, heavier creatures with explosives, and so on. There's a good mix of weaponry for all occasions, plus further pickups that increase the amount of ammo each gun can carry, which is always useful. The Run/Walk mode toggle wasn't something I ever used since it made sense to keep it permanently on Run, but I can see why some might prefer a decrease in speed when dealing with tricky areas such as the edge of cliffs. You can even swim, a further addition to the feeling of empowerment and freedom, though after a while, Tal'set, the Native Indian you're playing, starts to run out of air so it can become quite claustrophobic when you're plunging along watery mazes desperate to reach an air pocket before you die, bringing a whole other dimension to the game. One other gameplay addition is the Invincibility pickup, quite rare, which slows everything around Tal'set while he keeps going at normal speed, although the world blinks in multicoloured mayhem so it can be slightly disorienting, and is a rare find anyway.

Though most of the time the environment is solid and non-interactive, you can sometimes meet forest creatures, wild boar and deer, which drop health pickups each time they're shot, though they don't hang around once the shooting starts, so there is a sense of life beyond just a level to be traversed. Other times, floor switches can be pressed to open new areas, accompanied by a suitably rumbling noise of stone moving. In all respects it's a solid, chunky game to get into, and though there's no incentive to go back to it once all eight levels have been completed (in fact you can't go back to earlier levels once the eighth is entered as there's no Gateway at the start, unlike the others, which is annoying if you save within the level and then want to revisit older levels for whatever reason), and the Campaigner defeated. It does look a bit bland, devoid of colour, but you're too busy trying to stay alive to be overly concerned with how nice everything looks. I'm glad I thought of playing the game, it was entirely worth a replay, and provided just enough challenge without becoming a chore, even if I did end up going through Level 3 with a fine tooth comb thinking there was some secret entrance or Warp I'd missed to find the Chronoscepter piece, until I realised it was right at the very end where there was a vine-covered wall to climb up! It could be annoying sometimes if you took a fatal fall through misjudging a jump and hadn't saved for a while, or getting killed just before the next save point, but every game has its frustrations and this was a good, strong start to a series which I think has since evaporated in later years.

***

No Win Scenario

 DVD, Picard S3 (No Win Scenario)

Some high highs and low lows make this episode quite choppy. But I have to admit that the biggest irritation for me was a ridiculous one: they spelt Archanis 'Arcanis' - no 'h.' I know this is silly, but it was in bright neon and kept jumping out at me in the bar scenes set on the Holodeck! It wasn't just that it was misspelt (it could, after all, theoretically be a different planet), it was that the sign was for 'Arcanis Lager.' To me, lager is exactly the kind of laddish, contemporary to our time word that has no place in Trek. It's not that such things wouldn't exist in the 25th Century, it's just that Trek always used to focus on the finer things, so wine, or non-alcoholic Synthehol that gave the same kick, but was possible to snap out of at a moment's notice (not sure if that's canon or just an external explanation, but either way it was a far healthier version of drinking, both physically and mentally), or opera, classical music, high-minded ideals for things that had lasted for many centuries in our time and continued on, to give us something timeless to connect with. Now we get irritating and distracting pop culture references (I still haven't got over 'DSC' mentioning The Beatles), or 20th Century musical styles, and again, I'm not saying all these would have been forgotten, but the impression always used to be that our Starfleet characters were well educated with an appreciation of art that had previously only been popular with a smaller percentage of the population. It helped to ground Trek in its future setting, and by bringing in attempts to make it more relatable to modern audiences it actually makes it seem less real to me.

They continue their tradition of pop music (or relatively modern music compared with two or three hundred years' time!), opening the post-recap or post-title, and they continue their tradition of bars being a key feature of this season (we get two this time!). But the contemporary feel bleeds over into the characters, too. It's something I've long complained of in all modern Trek: they talk, look and act like people in the 21st Century, and it's always uncomfortable - I enjoy the innocence and naivety for past ways and manners that would become most apparent in time travel stories, but if the 'Picard' cast were to go back in time (oh yeah, they did in Season 2 - that's how forgettable that season is!), they'd blend right in. Jack Crusher and Captain Shaw were the worst examples in this episode, but Riker, and even Picard are swearing like it's gone out of fashion! It was most disgusting when Picard drops one of the worst, especially when you remember Patrick Stewart was expressing disappointment in the fact of exactly that kind of language being used in Season 1 - how times have changed in only a few short years! The way he says it, out of the side of his mouth, half-covering it with his hand, it really came across as embarrassment that such language was passing the lips of such a noble, high-minded character as Jean-Luc Picard, but the way it was put in there made me think he was trying to show how casual he is with this 'young' person, trying not to come across as a fuddy-duddy.

And I know very early on in 'TNG' Picard did swear in French, which would have been a bit shocking in itself if most people understood French, but they never did that again, and at the very least, though such atrocious language was being thrown about in previous seasons of 'Picard,' it was generally these unlikable non-legacy characters that were spouting it, but now they've crossed yet another line in the sand of good taste, and it's just one reason why this series is hard to fully embrace, despite all the episodes this season being generally more enjoyable than what they'd done before. It's not just foul language I found off-putting either, it's things like Shaw calling himself a 'grease-monkey,' about as anachronistic a description as you can get! (Or Jack yer son's 'Bob's yer Uncle, Fanny's yer Aunt'). I know they often used terms more familiar to the audience to put the future speak in context in old Trek, but his whole talk and attitude completely smacks of '21st Century TV Show.' Same with Jack Crusher. Both these characters are so hard to like for different reasons, though one they share in common is the lack of respect for Picard. At least Jack was starting to be a little more sensitive to his biological Father, though a large part of that had to be that they were facing death together, as suggested when as soon as they're out of danger at the end, Jack has flashbacks to when he first met Picard, incognito, five years previous when a gaggle of Cadets or young officers are swarming him at, yes, another bar - Jack ambushes him, without the old man even realising it at the time, asking if he's ever had a real family, not just a crew family and he unknowingly pushes him away by stating proudly that Starfleet's all the family he needs.

Incredibly unfair, because Picard didn't have the knowledge of his son, nor did Beverly or Jack know that he would have done anything to have a family like that, and maybe he didn't even fully know at that time. So it was almost like going back to square one after he and Jack had made progress in the last couple of episodes, going from Jack's outright hot hostility, to acquiescence, to at least giving Pa the time of day. I'm not sure if we're supposed to take from the way the flashbacks were inserted that Picard is remembering the young man in the cap and realising what he inadvertently did to push him away. But even during the crisis Jack doesn't exactly cover himself in plaudits: like a stereotypical 'yoof,' he's only really thinking about himself and how he feels, so when he tells Picard he really doesn't need it, I'm immediately thinking that of course it's for Picard himself, and then elder man does admit that maybe he needs it, though unlike me he didn't slap Jack down for being so selfish! If they were trying to make Jack a character we're supposed to root for then I'm afraid they aren't doing a very good job... It's not like they haven't shown the possibility: look at Sidney La Forge, she consistently comes across well - eager, dedicated, in her role because she excels... I understand it's a complex situation, but I don't think the writers even knew whether they wanted us to root for Picard or Jack! Neither has exactly been well written.

At least there are some turns in a positive direction, and there needed to be! Riker comes to Picard to make a semi-apology, admitting that his former Commander's suspicions about his lack of risk-taking was well-founded. That at least explains why he was so unprofessional as to humiliate Picard, sending him off the Bridge with the damning exhortation that he's killed them all, as he was angry at himself for what had happened. The trouble with Riker's arc is that it doesn't add up within the timeline we were presented with - when we visited Will, Deanna and their daughter in 'Nepenthe' they appeared genuinely content with life. Yes, there was sadness over the loss, but that had happened years before, so it seemed rather shoehorned in that Riker's motivation for helping Picard this season was largely to get away from home. I do buy that facing death can change perspective, and as I said, there are positive turns, particularly Will's conversation with Deanna via screen where he shows a desire to fix what's gone wrong between them. I can also buy that it was actually his lack of feeling, an emptiness that came between he and his wife, since she's empathic and used to sensing feelings. That's a kernel of good writing right there. It was also interesting that he displays some kind of fear about death, that in all his travels he's never discovered anything to make him believe there's anything after, and that was very sad to hear, especially when I think back to one of my favourite, most upbeat moments in all Trek: he and Picard alone on the crashed Enterprise-D's Bridge, discussing mortality, Riker glibly claiming he plans to live forever...

Reality can be harder, and for those without a faith this is actually being very realistic, no sugar-coating the secular void: nothingness. Usually I dislike the cracks in Trek's Utopia showing through, but in this case it could almost be the actor's thoughts himself as he comes towards the end of life, so there was a reality to what he was expressing there. But it isn't all doom and gloom, there are other positive moments that put a cap on some of the unpleasantness: Picard and Riker make up to the extent he gets fired up about the plan to ride out on a wave of energy that's being built up from a galactic birthing - while the sentiment may have been stolen wholesale from the end of 'Encounter At Farpoint' (it's even mentioned directly!), that beauty and sense of hope as new life arrives softens some of the episode's hard edges and makes for one of the most pleasant moments so far in what has been an admittedly gloomy and fraught season - when in doubt throw in some glowing baby space squid! Picard and Jack also find common ground, assisted by Shaw attacking the Admiral verbally - he may not have fully accepted Picard as Dad, but he does defend him, which was nice to see. I'll come back to Shaw's turn as accuser in a moment, but I'd say that he also shows some goodness or positivity.

Although, when Seven goes to him for advice about Changelings since she's never faced one (the Dominion War happened during the absence of Voyager), and he starts saying she'll make a great Captain one day, then she realises he's just saying what a Changeling might say, I think there was a seed of truth in his words, a way he could compliment her covertly. But also, once he's got the anti-Borg sentiments off his chest, he apologises to the crew that overheard and you see he regrets it, even though he clearly needed to get it off his chest, but most importantly, when Picard goes to him, like Seven before, to ask for help as the man most likely to know how to manually open the Nacelles in order for their plan to work, he doesn't get sour, just goes along with it, and even when he gets the 'lesson' in respecting identity politics, he takes it calmly. It helps it's his own life on the line, but all these things added up to a better outcome for the character overall. But still, we do need to discuss his issues! Much like Sisko before him he bears great resentment towards Picard in his guise as Locutus, entirely unfairly - it was not Picard's fault in the slightest, there was nothing he could do, but rather than be commiserated with for what he went through, some people seem to have been unable to understand or forgive, holding onto these hard feelings for decades. And Shaw didn't have the benefit of the Bajoran Prophets to help him see his way out - that's actually one of most brilliant parts of the 'DS9' pilot, 'Emissary.' Seeing Sisko realise what he'd done to himself and being able to move on, meeting Picard a second time without any animosity, exactly the kind of thing I most love in Trek and which is so often missing in its current incarnations.

You'd think Starfleet, in this ideal future where there's so much more knowledge of behaviour, mental issues, etc, would have been able to give all the survivors of Wolf 359 the perfect therapy and psychological support, or that it would even have come up when he was evaluated for Captaincy! But no, modern writers prefer to show broken, messed up people because that's more relatable and it's easier to write than people who are better than that: hence why we get characters like Raffi with their miserable pasts and presents (speaking of which, she's credited, but doesn't appear in the episode, while Michael Dorn also isn't in it, but doesn't get a credit - perhaps Hurd is considered 'main cast,' while Dorn's 'only' a Special Guest Star?). Maybe Shaw's crazed look isn't just a character issue, but a result of skipping psych eval? My other beef with him is that it increasingly looks like he just threw off command to Riker as an act of petulance, since he's able to hobble around the ship and go into the Holodeck to have a go at Picard (he must have been wandering the ship as no one knew Picard would be there), or take visits from Seven! What's to stop him commanding the ship, it's not like Riker is doing anything particularly physical, all Shaw would need to do is sit in his Captain's Chair and give orders? But maybe he also knew Riker's the more experienced brain who can get them out of this situation. I'm putting more in Shaw's mind than is definitively the case, but at least there's enough room to manoeuvre for such justifications. There's also the little issue of how familiar Riker is with this Titan. The ship's history hasn't been very clearly laid out, but I had the impression Riker was Captain of it before Shaw, but they mention a refit so I don't know when that was supposed to have happened, and in any case, the whole point of asking Shaw to help is because he knows Nacelles from before the refit...

It's all so they can give Shaw something more meaningful to do, I understand, but I like details to be ironed out and clear so I can enjoy the references to canon history and continuity. There's another aspect that doesn't quite add up, however, and that's the Titan's crew itself. I'm under the impression they're mostly young, though there's no reason given for this other than to emphasise the difference in ages between our main two 'TNG' stars (well, all of them really), and these fresh young things, perhaps another attempt at evoking 'Star Trek II,' which they do love to do (musically again here). In that case it was specifically a Cadet training vessel, and there's no excuse in this case, but the crew isn't made to look its best and most competent: they don't know about the Nacelles pre-refit, which is why Shaw was taken off his sickbed, while it's up to Beverly to work out the pulses of shock rocking the ship are actually contractions for a giant space-borne creature (I thought they were dropping into some kind of gravitational hole last time?), so that doesn't say much for the scientists aboard. Granted, we keep hearing the crew are having to gather in 'safe zones' and all available power is being redirected to propulsion, I think, and when Seven tries to get the bucket analysed she's fobbed off with 'lab's closed, use a Tricorder' - really helpful!

Then there's the security issue: why aren't Security all over the place, or bodyguards for key personnel like Picard, for example - there isn't the tidy paranoia seen so expertly in 'The Adversary,' a similar story about the Defiant dealing with a Changeling saboteur. I see they wouldn't want to make it too similar, but the pieces were all there for a great episode full of twists and confusion over who's real and who isn't (maybe we could have seen it from the Changeling's perspective, like the Doctor in 'Renaissance Man,' or at least a few scenes like that), but there really isn't much of a progression or buildup. They have a lot to cram into this episode which is almost an hour long, but they really needed to up that paranoia. In this case they're keeping this Changeling threat a secret, which doesn't make a lot of sense because everyone is then entirely vulnerable, unless you're in the know. Not that the Changeling himself is exactly a mastermind! He shows himself by randomly killing someone in a corridor where Seven is, then turns and tries to get her, not very sensible behaviour if you can pass as anyone and dribble through into any part of the ship! I didn't like the fleshy, ugly mass replacing the morphing liquid look of 'DS9' (which was seen in some degree in the times when the face is punched in the previous episode), but at least that could be because these aren't just ordinary Changelings. I'm not sure on the rationale for Seven remaining 'unofficial,' either. If she's reinstated as First Officer she'll have to go and fill out personnel reports, or something? I mean come on!

What does work are the many lonely scenes of just one or two people early on while the sound of the pulses ripples round the ship, so they got the atmosphere right in that sense (Frakes directing again), if not the full drama of a Changeling let loose on a starship. For some reason I loved having a scene of just Riker and Seven, and when she says, "Yes, Captain," at the end of that it was just like she used to say it to Janeway! Her subplot, tracking down the enemy within, was okay, but it was a little messy - for a start Shaw tells her about the chamber pot– sorry, Changeling's pot (again they get into modern speak when the first thing Seven thinks of is cannabis - that's entirely unreal and unnecessary!), and apparently now all Changelings carry the same bucket Odo used. The problem there is that, as much as it's lovely to see the recreation of an old artefact from 'DS9,' that particular receptacle was Bajoran in origin, not something Odo somehow brought with him! It was even in the same colours as the Bajoran Militia uniforms! This time round I did notice Odo's face on Seven's PADD (even if it is a Season 1 image!), and he must be one of the most Trekferenced characters in the modern era now, with 'Lower Decks' and 'Prodigy' both mentioning him, or in the latter's case, featuring a holographic recreation (only 'DSC' and 'SNW' haven't done that, understandably), so that was nice, and maybe this Changeling was a fan and wanted a replica of the bucket... As long as it wasn't screen-used! It's a bit much that all it takes to track a Changeling now is a sample of their goo - surely all Changelings would read the same, and also, side note: why would there be any residue in the bucket? If you cut off a piece it dies.

Incongruities aside (and you would hope they'd get these details right if they're deliberately using established lore), there's also the issue of the needlessly gory scene of Vadic slicing off her own hand so that some communication device can manufacture a slimy super-being's face that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (at least there were 90% less foghorns this time). So... this is the way the Borg communicate with their underling? And why was Vadic working with the Borg, anyway - purely revenge? All questions to be posed later in the season, but for now they were clearly trying to keep the 'real' villain under wraps, desperate for their secrets to keep people coming back week after week rather than relying on careful and considered character development. There is some flawed development, it's not a void, but the episode still relies on the brilliance of seeing Riker, Picard and Crusher - even Deanna getting a look-in, but in opposition to the trend, no additional 'TNG' cast, and in fact one less with Worf's story never cut in this time. But there's some foreshadowing when you know what's being set up: the Kal-toh Vulcan puzzle of little metal rods forming a something-ecahedron shape which was seen in the real Ensign Foster's Quarters must have been a hint that Tuvok was coming back, and the manner of his return, too, since that was his game, but was in a room used by a Changeling (which he'd be). Then when Shaw's venting steam at Picard and says forget all that stuff on the Stargazer (which could be confusing in itself since just before, Picard had been telling Jack about his namesake and the original Stargazer!), referring to the Agnes Jurati Borg faction, because the original Borg are still out there.

Indeed they are, as we'd be finding out - even the final scene where Jack washes his face in a bowl in front of a mirror before looking into it and getting a shock was very 'First Contact,' which opens with Picard having a similar experience, and his was all in the mind, too, so they were really pushing us towards the Borg without ever making it completely obvious. Even the whispered voices, well, the very last words anyway, sounded reminiscent of Alice Krige's Borg Queen, so I wonder if it actually was, since they'd mainly use Beverly's voice in subsequent episodes in order to keep us confused. One thing that has rankled before, but was especially uneven this episode was the way Vulcans came across - there are a couple of them shown that appear to look worried and are happy to touch and hug, neither of which is correct behaviour (oh, how we need a live action T'Lyn!), and while there's always the argument they're just another pointy-eared, bowl-cut-haired race similar in look to Vulcans, we also get our Bridge Vulcan, T'Veen and she's a tureen of expression - sometimes she reacts with fear, sometimes wonder, but whatever she does, she seems to express emotion, and previously she's done so well, on the whole, that it's disconcerting and distracting - it proves Vulcans really are the hardest to pull off consistently (which again is why I love the 'LD' character of T'Lyn).

A few other issues: it was a bit of a risk for Seven to kill the Changeling who appeared as Sidney - it wouldn't have taken half a tick to call up to the Bridge and ask them if they'd sent her down to help after she'd told them not to send anyone. It may have been all the distraction it needed to attack, but it put far too much emphasis on Seven's need for her personal naming choices to be validated over and above the story, even if it was pulled off well. However: 'Oops, I meant to call you Commander Seven, but Captain Shaw doesn't like it so I reverted to protocol in his presence, and now... I'm dead.' Again, I get it, it comes from the nice scene where Sidney shows support for her suspended First Officer, but it was life and death (and it didn't need to be - they seem to forget there's a stun setting on Phasers, maybe they need Malcolm Reed to remind them: Stun and Kill, it would be best not to confuse them). And why did her Phaser look like a Romulan Disruptor? The most glaring flaw of the episode is how crucial it is for all power to be conserved, but Picard takes Jack to a Holodeck for their conversation! I know, I know, it happened all the time in the past, and they make a point of having Picard explain it runs on its own separate power cell, but surely in an emergency they could find a way to tap into that! What kind of useless grease-monkeys do they have in Starfleet these days? It didn't even make sense for them to go there since it was a private conversation, and then the crew start filing in looking for company, so it might have been more appropriate to find Quarters or use the Conference Room, but no, we've got to squeeze in the bar set. Again! Oh, and one more little one that really doesn't matter: Riker says Picard has the Conn, but doesn't that mean taking the Helm, not the Captain's Chair? I might be wrong, but it didn't seem right, even though it was lovely to see him in the centre seat again.

Yes, I had my issues with this one, as I have with all of them, and it is strange in the way they don't have any connection to the other ongoing story of Worf and Raffi, nor keep to the schedule of adding a new 'TNG' character, but at least Vadic remains mostly out of the picture as her ridiculous line delivery and weird attitude always rings hollow and annoying. The episode certainly didn't drag, there are some nice scenes and we certainly get a good sense of a functioning starship with various rooms and corridors, even if not so much of a functioning crew! An atmospheric early part and a beautiful and successful extrication from their immediate predicament left on a high point with a great sense of the weight of a battleship steering precariously through an asteroid field rather than zipping about like a small fighter, they've definitely got the size and manoeuvrability right, at least in this episode. And it continues to be bolstered by bold, filmic music which only enhances the drama. But still, the things I disliked continue to drag it down, especially the main body of the episode - they succeed in some aspects of plot, such as the reveal Ensign Foster was a real Starfleet officer whose body has been dead since before the Crushers came aboard, thus vindicating what was going on and confirming it's part of something larger so Shaw can't exactly complain as much, its a qualified success. Some fun Trekferences like Picard telling the young officers about the events of 'Darmok' or the tantalising hints of what it was like when he and Worf went up against the Hirogen (typical Worf - I'd have loved to see him take on 'Voyager's ultimate warrior race, especially the giant variety!), and it was nice to hear Picard would've called his son after his friend Jack if he'd had the choice, plus a good setting of the situation with the Titan 'bleeding to death.' But even so, it does feel like it's been treading water yet again: necessary water, extended water, but treading it all the same, and when you think how few episodes we have to see these 'TNG' people together again, it can slightly feel like wasted potential...

**

Seventeen Seconds

 DVD, Picard S3 (Seventeen Seconds)

Conflict, conflict, everywhere conflict... Picard versus Crusher, Jack versus Picard, Picard versus Riker... It's pretty much Picard as the common theme in all of it, and I know he still has his name on the marquee despite the number of 'TNG' costars creeping in week by week (up to five now!), but this is exactly what's been happening throughout the series, Picard being told to shut up, go away or leave us alone - it's not a good look and I really do wonder why Patrick Stewart was so intent on making his iconic character so weak, undoing all the good work he'd stored up as his legacy. At least with Season 3 he seems to have come alive more, bolstered by his old friends, mostly Riker's presence, but the disrespect shown to Picard is still on the agenda and that's very sad. There were a few things that didn't quite click for me in this episode, even though I'd say it was a click of the needle in the right direction overall, incrementally the best so far. The central conflict between Riker and Picard was the main one, I never quite understood it. Not to mention the protocols for such a situation where you have an injured Captain who's already confined his First Officer to Quarters (don't they have a Second Officer any more?), then flings command at Captain Riker - it makes sense he'd be the one to take control, after all he did command this very ship (I think...?), before Shaw and he's on active duty, while Picard, though an Admiral, is not. I loved the issue of Fathers and sons that has suddenly become a link between these two old friends and comrades, but not when it became a wedge between them.

Riker is amused, fascinated and so happy for Jean-Luc that he has the potential for something Riker lost - he has that old Riker mischievous grin when he looks at Jack who refuses to even acknowledge Picard as Dad, and there is that touching, haunting reminder that Riker lost his own son, a bit of Season 1 canon being used to good effect, and gives him much more urgency in his attitude to Picard getting to know Jack and having time with him. But then that also becomes a deep dark well of bitterness between them when Picard believes Riker's defensive strategy in trying to avoid the Shrike pursuing them is because of his loss. Is it? Or is Riker being pragmatic, the Titan not being a huge Galaxy-class ship like the Enterprise-D (or Sovereign like the E, though he didn't specify), with a crew that aren't his, he just wants to get them out of there with minimal damage and loss of life. I didn't comprehend why Picard was so gung-ho about facing off against the Shrike, other than the whole son thing again: he's been given a new lease of life with this sudden in-rush of possibilities thanks to Jack's appearance on the scene, is that it? So Riker lost a son and now plays it safe, while Picard's gained one and wants to go all out to do all he can to survive. It's not the typical Picard attitude and I can see that this news could affect how he reacts to events, but then it seemed to be just another way to paint Picard as this 'passed it' old crock that has nothing to offer any more, and I don't like that at all.

To me, when Riker orders him to remove himself from the Bridge, claiming he's 'killed them all,' it was a reminder of the hotheaded scene in 'First Contact' when a furious Picard orders Worf to 'get off my Bridge!' While that moment was uncomfortable and well outside of the personalities and style of the characters, it did have a place of reality in that Picard was dealing with so much, his own Borgified past rising to the fore and altering him (in parallel to what this season would become all about). Picard's failure to anticipate the effects of the portal weapon make him look very silly, but even then Riker had no business shouting at him in front of the crew, completely humiliating him, and then there's the effect it would have on the crew if your stand-in Captain shows he thinks they're all dead, a massive loss of morale! It shows that Riker himself hasn't entirely aged well, but it was a step too far and I didn't like it. I want to see them solving problems together as Trek did in the past, not creating drama from their disagreements and showing their increasing frailties. But as much as the season has shown more promise than the previous two, it still remains rooted in the style and setup of those - in fact we get a number of callbacks to canon created within them, and that's more often than not a bad thing: Jack saying Picard is positronic, Raffi being reminded of her drug-addled past, only Riker's personal history was a good addition, and even that would be subverted as we'll see him in conflict with his own family later.

The extended cast, the actual crew surrounding our main characters continue to be well handled - it's not that we're getting to know Esmar, T'Veen, Mura, and so on, but they are shown to be competent officers, and in Sidney La Forge's case we even go a little deeper. She's really being presented so well generally, and as we see here, when she's relieved of duty after a thirty-six hour shift to go and rest by Captain Shaw, she first takes the time to check in on Seven in her Quarters and tell her about how she shares a difficulty in forming friendships just as her Father did, and this little scene really helps to flesh her out as a person - I feel like we know her better than, yes, the 'DSC' extended cast already. I'm not sure I agree with her that Geordi found it tough to make friends, because he was always one of the most easygoing, pleasant people. He had his struggles with the opposite sex, true, but I never got the sense he couldn't make friends with people, but perhaps this is a daughter's added colour to the perspective. Either way it's nice to have a sense of Geordi on the ship while he still isn't here yet, in much the same way I imagine Demora Sulu would have brought her Father's spirit with her had the Enterprise-B been a series rather than a few scenes in a film. Geordi may not be here, but we get Marina Sirtis back as Deanna Troi (Riker-Troi, to be precise), though it's more of a tease than anything else as she's only in a holo-screen communication, and in flashback, but I was pleased to see her elevated to Special Guest Star alongside her other 'TNG' costars since she was shoved in the guest credits at the end of her first appearance on 'Picard' in Season 1, which seemed very disrespectful to the actress and character at the time.

This series remains a slow burn, even while there's more tension than the previous seasons' slow burns, but they're still in the same nebula they were near in the first episode, still being confronted by a vast enemy vessel, and still not getting anywhere very fast. But in this case there are things that have been left hanging that we're eager to see: chiefly, Picard's conversation with Beverly. They meet in Sickbay which is quickly cleared out and all the long ire of twenty years pours out between them. In one sense it's a very soapy scene, all about feelings and family matters, etc, but with the weight of a real twenty years behind it, to see Picard and Crusher together again is lovely (they mention it'd ended between them for the fifth time and that's not entirely hyperbole!). And both have good points about what happened and what should have happened - Beverly definitely comes across as someone who didn't think things through and acted on instinct, failing to understand either Jack's need for his Father or Picard's need for a son, and it's a refreshingly anti-feminist view: it wasn't selfishly her child to do with as she saw fit, he was their son. Rather than trust in Jean-Luc to do what was best for them all she never gave him the choice and what he went through in Season 2 might have been dealt with those decades ago. This was the only sour note for me as that storyline was terrible and I never bought that Picard's Father was some evil man (as it proved), but it's quite moving when Picard explains how things might have been, and it's clear Beverly was by far the one in the wrong, a reminder that broken families cause so much pain, and a child needs a Mother and a Father to thrive.

That it took three episodes to get us to the point of contact between Picard and Crusher was on the one hand a good way to hold attention, but on the other still smacks of the inability to write tight Trek stories these days (at least on these serialised series'), and as much good as we get it's still hard to see how that format suits these characters in that way. Perhaps things should have been streamlined to get things moving and bring the 'TNG' cast together quicker, but I will say the anticipation of the scene worked for this particular aspect. I did find myself looking at the directing and thinking it was a bit obvious (the old trick of having two characters who have been separated by time, now having a gulf of difference between them, is illustrated by showing them at either end of the frame and slowly they come a little more together as the scene progresses, for example), and there were occasions throughout I wasn't sure about the directing choices, but it wasn't until the end I realised Jonathan Frakes directed! Oops... I can't say I've been enamoured with his embrace of the modern style of TV, with camera flying all over the place, the kind of thing he's been doing in Trek since 'DSC' Season 1, but it is much more impressive to see he directed when he was so central to the story, too!

There are still things that irritate, even while this episode turns up a notch on canon and continuity detail - a large part of both of those things comes in the scenes between Worf and Raffaella (as he will insist on calling her - a formality I liked). His official introduction to her was superb, covering all his family history and some of his major life events in one short paragraph: the son of Mogh, of the house of Martok (hooray, at least he gets a shoutout!), son of Sergei of the house of Rozhenko (love it!), bane to the Duras family, slayer of Gowron - it's shiver down the spine time for all those glorious Trekferences: 'TNG' and 'DS9' are alive again in a modern production, how exciting! Eat that Mirror Georgiou and your fancy titles, this is stuff that actually matters and has a reality! It doesn't end there, either as Worf later talks about the Dominion War and gives us a summary of why there could be Changelings setting out to destroy 'solids' again. It was just great to hear such terms, but crowning it all was when he refers to a friend he knew in The Great Link, an honourable man, who told him about this rogue faction that split off. I would have liked Odo to have been mentioned by name, but it wouldn't have meant anything to Raffi, or would it? Thanks to 'Picard' we're often seeing news watched just like today, on 'TV,' as she has in the previous episodes and does in this one, so you'd think the Federation's only Changeling ally living at the forefront of the War would have been widely known - so maybe Raffi would have heard of Odo, but not hearing his name was almost a callback to another series: in 'Voyager' ('Non Sequitur'), they had an alternate universe Paris mention an unfavourable Changeling on 'DS9' without ever saying his name!

This all has more poignancy to it because it was made after René Auberjonois' death, so while I don't think we had any other Trekferences to other 'DS9' characters Worf served with across this season (other than the aforementioned Martok), it was only good and right that Odo should be talked about. Nog actor Aron Eisenberg was similarly honoured in 'DSC' with a ship named after him, so it's good to see these much-loved actors not forgotten. Of course if this series had only been made ten years before then we could have had them and any number of others involved, and that's the sad thing about all this: while Trek has generally been quite poor or average at best for the most part in the Kurtzman era, it has brought back many, many old characters (or 'legacy' as they're now known), but it was disappointing there couldn't have been more 'DS9' and 'Voyager' examples in this season, even though we had the occasional familiar face and you can't complain when it's supposed to be a swan-song specifically for 'TNG' and (almost), everyone returned for it. And there was also the potential, as they did with far too many characters, that they could be ruined, killed, or put in a bad position in life that makes you regret them being brought back at all, sadly.

Take Seven as the prime example (or Picard himself, for that matter!). At least she continues to seem more like the old Seven, the one who was part of a crew, because she's part of a crew now - as much as I liked Sidney for paying her a visit, it did come across a little bit too familiar since she is a subordinate and was being maybe too friendly, but Seven herself was most restrained. It's nice to see her Quarters, and rather than the vast size of those aboard Discovery, she, as First Officer, still has quite a small space (though even there she's got a little silver model of Voyager to remind her of better days!). Her work with Jack also garnered a thumbs up from me - I could almost imagine it being B'Elanna Torres she was working with in that Engineering cubbyhole! It all felt so very Trekky - that's what it often was: people doing things in rooms, while outside there might be some action between ships in space. There was much more of that submarine feel that has been lost with so many massive windows and a reliance on visual effects over internal scenes to seal the drama. Even the gas leak was a little like the ocean breaking in, though it was actually the reverse, gas leaking out into space, mostly, as a trail for the Shrike to follow. I was actually wondering why pudgy-faced traitor man (Ensign Foster?), wasn't doing something to signal to his fellow 'shifters, especially when he's posted at one of the aft portholes to be an observer when sensors are lost due to the effects of the nebula - even that sentence is very Trekky, it feels like Trek again, wonderfully so!

However, not everything is tickety-boo, and Raffi is once again a source of annoyance. At least pairing her up with the legend that is Worf, and his calm demeanour, makes her a little less horrible (in the same way as Picard does better with Riker), and it's great to see him put her in her place when so often she's done that to others on this series. Worf is patient, instructive and solid all through, though I wasn't quite sold on his philosophical bent. I wasn't sure if he was putting on an act for the Changeling, Titus Rikka (sounds a lot like the actor who played him, Thomas Dekker!), when he said there was no righteous cause, no good and no evil. Was he saying this is what the Changeling believed or that he did? And as for 'the fight is rarely worth dying for,' does that mean he no longer believes in a glorious death winning a Klingon entry to Sto-Vo-Kor? I know he'd been described as a pacifist in promotion for the season, but there's absolutely no evidence of that, he's quite happy to slice and dice, or do a terrific wrestling move to slam Rikka down through a table - if he actually was a pacifist he wouldn't be fighting at all! But I do love having his cool, certain presence, and while his voice is a bit raspier, not quite as rich as it used to be, and I find it very distracting to see his ears poking out like it's a wig malfunction, this is the Worf we knew and loved for so many years and it's just so terrific to have back!

Raffi I could have done without, she once again shows the murky, nasty modern view of the Trek future being as seedy and unpleasant as any other time (though it's not limited to her: the Titan crew give Jack nasty looks, very un-Starfleet of them, while Riker's riposte to Jack's claim 'the bigger the legend, the more disappointing they are,' is that we're all faulty, only human, which is true, but doesn't fit with the Trek ethos). Raffi threatens her captive with ripping out his fingernails (I loved how Worf says he may keep his fingernails - he sounds just like Worf should!), and tempts him with drugs since he appears to be a junkie and mainly, but not exclusively, she's responsible for the swear count going up. In all, she's a thoroughly unpleasant package and should have been jettisoned with the rest of the limp former 'Picard' cast. But she's not the only one who makes herself difficult to like. Jack's another one who does everything in his power to come across badly - perhaps the only times he doesn't act like that is when he's encouraging a patient in Sickbay (but maybe he just liked the look of her...), or when he goes to Seven to report his theory of a leak making Titan trackable. I did wonder why he didn't simply call the Bridge instead of trying to get there via Turbolift (is there a guard posted at every lift during Red Alert - seems like a waste of resources?), and I know he doesn't have a Combadge, but that should surely be of no account to a tech genius who could get himself out of a starship's Brig - surely a much easier matter to tap into the comm system! It also didn't make sense to me that Seven could open her own door, but then I realised she's only been confined, she's not a criminal or she'd be in the Brig. But Jack is quick to deck the Security Guard (who, let's be honest, did a bad job stopping him from going into Seven's room in the first place), which makes him look like a hothead.

It's worse when he acts like a teenager in Sickbay when Riker tactfully suggests they leave Picard and Beverly together, as well as it becoming clear it was ultimately his choice not to meet Picard when he was younger. I understand he's young and quick to judge, not reading the subtleties of a situation in which someone his Mother knew so well needs time with her. And then he gets so bitter about not having had a Father when Riker's seeing the similarity that it's really hard to warm to him as a person, not a good place to put a new character in, especially if you're setting him up, as they seemed to by end of season, as a potential series lead of the future. He's not the only one who comes across a bit insensitive - Dr. Crusher herself never seems to remember what it was like when some outsider came swanning into her Sickbay, and instead gets on Dr. Ohk's nerves by jumping right in. Then she has the cheek to explain how to save Captain Shaw, showing up this doctor in her own Sickbay. I know we're not supposed to have any affinity to this stranger and instead we're meant to cheer Beverly for being back in her rightful place in a starship's Sickbay, but she's already a little bit in the doghouse for how she cut Picard out of her life (and the fact she removed herself from all her Enterprise friends' lives suggests she knew it was wrong), and her son is annoying so she's not in the best position. Unconsciously, it could also be a moral message about intimacy without the tie of marriage, because otherwise they might have been a happy family, while instead Beverly showed a lack of trust.

Her reasoning is that Picard would never have left the call of space behind (well we know he did, going into some kind of depression), and it was fascinating to hear these snippets of events that happened with Romulans kidnapping him or Reman assassins putting a Phaser to his head - the kind of adventures we can imagine happening in that post-'Nemesis' world (or was it before that, I'm unclear?). We even go back to that time, or somewhere around it with the flashback scene. Hmm, not sure about what I assume was CGI de-ageing, it didn't look all that convincing, and obviously Picard even then has his quavering, raspy voice. But it's sensibly shot in semi-darkness (the same old bar set, which looks a little odd since we keep seeing it - was it on the Holodeck of the Titan, was it actually Guinan's bar, or was it supposed to be somewhere else?), and Riker doesn't look too bad. Maybe it was a mix of makeup and CGI, but however you shake it, it didn't look right. I did like the uniform, reminiscent of the 'First Contact' style, but with a twist. Was it another new uniform or the same style as we'd seen before for the earlier period? I couldn't quite work out what year it was supposed to be. The reuse of sets was starting to become apparent - they also revisit the bar or market on M'Talas Prime for hunting down Rikka. One thing: he's a Changeling, so why didn't he just shapeshift out of the cuffs and chair? Typically, they make the effect of shifting much more unpleasant: gloopy, scummy sludge that oozes and bubbles, though that could be because he's one of these we'll later learn were experimented upon.

It was good to see the old Changeling look again - not the smooth faces and unfinished ears prompted by Odo (no doubt they'd never want to recall a prominent member of those they broke away from in the Link, though ironically the only time we've seen a Changeling in the old style was in 'DSC' in the 32nd Century!), but the rippling brown ooze, which happens when Jack strikes Ensign Foster, and again when, as Worf points out, Rikka needs to regenerate, was suitably reminiscent. It really did generate a whole new sense of possibility that they brought in these old foes from 'DS9,' even though I knew beforehand they were connecting to the Dominion War. I was still hopeful for Vorta and Jem'Hadar to be involved, too, just to see that fantastic makeup again, but now, hearing the backstory of what happened, that there was a schism in the Changelings, and knowing how we later find out they were very different, there was no reason for it, and Worf even says they weren't after another war. I wonder if they used the word 'schism' deliberately, as that was the name of a 'TNG' episode with weird aliens from another dimension that spoke in creepy clicks, and now we have this Shrike crewed by masked creatures that speak in clicks. Are they supposed to be Changelings or merely foot-soldiers hired by Vadic? Was there ever a plan to connect them to the 'Schisms' aliens?

Shaw takes a backseat, or more specifically a back bed since he's injured flying across the Bridge in the traditional way characters were always flung about during an attack. Probably didn't help the Captain's Chair being built up so high with all those steps, as that's a long way to fall - it's almost Cardassian the way he's up so high! He has a lot less to do, but is also more sympathetic, but doesn't seem as seasoned as he did - does Riker really need to tell him about nebulas? I know it's really for the audience's benefit, but it seems the sort of thing he should have been explaining to one of his own subordinates as Captain. He all but throws up his hands, almost accusatory when he says 'there go the sensors,' and he's so quick to pass over command to Riker once he's been injured when so often a Captain has stubbornly held onto the reins of power even in agony and has to be talked out of it. But it's like he just wants all the judgement to be on Riker - if they don't get out of that situation there'll be no consequences for any of them so maybe he does feel some confidence in Riker's ability to do what's necessary? We're back in 'Insurrection' tactics again when Riker fires a torpedo, then fires on it to ignite the surrounding nebula and punch the Shrike away - I must say I didn't feel we got a good sense of its scale compared with the Titan, which did get plenty of nice shots and had weight to it. But more than anything else there was a definite attempt to evoke the battle in the nebula of 'Star Trek II,' even down to the music, though they didn't go too strong into that. The dimensional-folding interspatial singularity weapon (as it's called), was at least different, if not seemingly very practical as you'd always have to deploy it right in front of a moving target!

Music continues to play a strong part in the season, both for good and bad - on the negative side they always have to have their old rock music or whatever it is, starting yet another post-title scene with that when Riker and Picard are in a bar for the flashback. But generally the music lifts the episode and underlines the tension or weight of their situation most successfully, a far cry from what had been done the previous two seasons. I didn't quite see Seven listening to choral music in her Quarters, as much as I liked it! But Worf doing his exercises to what I assume was Klingon opera, was brilliant, they're really getting him down pat. Yet there are still bits and pieces that don't ring true: the Phaser still turns people into a shower of sparks (Worf shoots Rikka when he tries to shapeshift away), though we do at least get a proper Phaser beam, both from his hand Phaser and when the Titan shoots the torpedo (though can't they be remote detonated?), so that was gratifying. At the end when Riker says fire everything they've got, all they've got is four torpedoes? That seemed a bit unlikely, but on the other hand at least it wasn't the typical overkill we tend to get in modern Trek where there are hundreds of ships firing thousands of torpedoes (that comes later!). And while I said the Bridge crew aren't badly set up, there were also a couple of moments when they didn't ring true: I can't imagine a Bajoran speaking blasphemy, especially not the name of the human's God! Surely, if he was going to express himself in such terms he'd say Prophets? And T'Veen, though she generally works well as a Vulcan, and this time mentions logic, she appears a little too expressive at times.

I took it the observer who reports the Shrike's appearance was the same woman next to Ensign Foster earlier, but then I thought they were at the aft section, while here the Shrike comes in from the side and it seemed the same woman reported it. Either she switched position or there was a disconnect between the script and the visuals... And why isn't Worf in Starfleet? He calls himself a subcontractor whose concerns align with Starfleet, which seemed to be a longwinded way of saying he's not in Starfleet these days - was he cashiered for losing the E (as we later find out this season?), and if so, how is he working for Starfleet Intelligence? Don't think these questions were ever answered, not that it's that important, but I like to know all the facts. I must mention the fact that another old face reappeared this time: Thomas Dekker is possibly best known for playing John Connor in the late-2000s 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,' but he also had a couple of child roles in Trek - first as one of Picard's imaginary sons (!), in 'Generations,' then as a holo-character in two episodes of 'Voyager,' so it was great they brought him in for Rikka. I wonder if they even knew he'd been in Trek before? His character's boast that 'your worlds are on the verge of destruction' was very like the end of 'DS9' Season 3 in which Odo fights a fellow Changeling to the death aboard the Defiant and with whose dying breath he triumphantly tells him the Changelings are everywhere - they seemed to be going for something similar, surely be inspired by that.

What makes this particular episode work slightly better than before (though we're still talking incremental improvement), is that there's real emotion here. So often it's been all about people bursting into tears and we live in a time when emotion is the most important thing and everyone should let it out, etc, but one of the real strengths of Trek had always been seeing emotion behind the eyes of characters, knowing what they're going through but they don't express it, or don't fully express it, and I got that sense again here when Picard and Beverly grapple with this painful subject that has to be addressed. The possibility of what might have been was a powerful driver in that scene and Beverly is so upset about how she lost her own parents (do we know that story, I'm not sure we do?), her husband, and even her son Wesley, to the stars - that's the kind of strong drawing on canon that brings resonance and meaning. When Riker tells Jack he lost a son, and when Jack tells him about how his Mother would start telling stories about her friends when he was growing up, lighting up her eyes, then would become sad and stop, it said so much and gave such a good grasp of where everyone is and has been, that that emotional sensibility worked and gave depth to the scenes. The only thing like that which didn't work so well was the explanation for the episode's title: I didn't catch why Riker had been going down somewhere on the ship which took him seventeen seconds because I was too busy being taken out of the scene by the de-ageing. That, and other reasons I've mentioned are why I still can't quite see this as the first genuinely good episode of the season, but I do feel it keeps improving and I still look forward to seeing more of the characters coming together, and more especially, to writing about it.

**