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...

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