The Last Generation

 DVD, Picard S3 (The Last Generation)

This could be the last live action modern Trek episode I ever review judging by what's on the horizon, and it may be that position swayed my judgement on this viewing, because I certainly enjoyed it more than the first time - with the recent release and strong negative reaction from most sources as the impression I get of 'Section 31,' it may be they don't continue their foray into streaming films, which in turn seemed the most likely way many of these 'TNG' characters would ever return to Trek after 'Picard' Season 3 marked the end of that era. But especially with the brakes on hard for much new Trek content, it seemed to suggest this episode really could be the last of all these great characters, that generation, together. Whatever the reason, I felt a warmth throughout most of this story and I was able to separate the flaws and irritations, or perhaps see them through the pleasant haze of enjoyment I was experiencing, and responded to the many heartfelt character moments more strongly. Perhaps when I first saw it I was expecting some of them to die, I don't remember, but this time I could simply sit back and let it all play out without fear of a bad end for anyone. And the ending reminded me of that from 'The Lord of The Rings,' how they gave us multiple finales to wrap up the various threads and strands, and which I really appreciate, especially in modern media when everything has to be fast and often incoherent. I realised as the Borg were defeated we still had a good twenty minutes to finish out the characters' stories (which is almost the full-length of a 'Lower Decks' instalment!).

Right from the very first second when the Enterprise-D replaces the Titan in the 'Star Trek' Universe opening tag scene, along with that ominous green Borg colour scheme at the end, attention to detail was on overdrive - I'd even temporarily forgotten they had Walter Koenig (apparently at his suggestion), do a voiceover from the Federation President, aping 'Star Trek IV' where he warns any and all persons to stay away from Earth, and we even get to hear Pavel Chekov (we're meant to presume, since this President Anton Chekov, in a nice little nod to the tragically deceased Anton Yelchin, mentions his Father only by title), since Koenig as Anton does an impression of Pavel (are you following this?), which was lovely, and a way to include a 'TOS' character, however obliquely, marking what I believe must be the first time actors playing their characters from the first four live action Trek series' appear in the same episode (Koenig for 'TOS,' the entire 'TNG' cast, Worf representing 'DS9,' plus Seven and Tuvok for 'Voyager'), which is a momentous event in itself, divorced from the story or sense of grand finale! During Chekov's pronouncement they even recreate part of the 'TNG' opening credits with the hazy stars dissolving the picture as we zoom into one, which was yet another nice touch. I wish we could have seen Koenig, that would have been preferable, but even merely hearing his voice worked well.

Unfortunately, the opening (despite thankfully not having 20th Century music!), has an example of one of the problems of the episode: its melodrama. Beverly claims that if Earth falls, everything falls, which I didn't buy at all - I can understand there'd be a major threat to this part of the Galaxy if the population of Earth were assimilated, but would the Klingon Empire fall because of that? Would every Federation world really be that dependent on Earth? I can see why you want Earth the centre, since every audience member is from there (!), and rightly so, but the Borg's plan wasn't for even the usual assimilation and in many ways the insane Queen was defanged by her new mandate to 'evolve' (whatever that means), rather than assimilate. It's the same way as when I play the original X-Com game on the Amiga: once you master alien 'psionics' you can have your soldiers either panic an enemy unit or take control, and I never saw any advantage in panicking, much better to take over and use its point of view to expand your vision of the battlefield, perhaps even take out a neighbouring enemy with their colleague's own fire. In the same way, what benefit would the Borg have to obliterate humanoids that could exist best to serve their ends rather than add their distinctiveness to their own: the pursuit of perfection through a combination of biological and technological means. That's what always made the Borg so chilling - it wasn't that they wanted to destroy you, they wanted to consume you and infuse you into their being.

Late in the episode Deanna similarly says something overblown about having a choice between losing their friends by destroying the Borg Cube, or losing everyone in the Galaxy!! It's a terrific dilemma, but she just sounds over the top in her hyperbole, and saying 'Earth' in this context would have made things much more relatable. It does seem to be the two women that make the most dramatic statements so maybe emotion was getting the better of them, although there are a number of emotional scenes for various people, usually good ones, and at least Deanna got to somewhat redeem her reputation as the one who crashed two Enterprises in the films! This time her Betazoid mental abilities are what enable the Enterprise-D to find Picard, Riker, Worf and Jack, while Data's gut (which is considerably enlarged thanks to his ageing!), is depended on as he believes he can fly them inside the Cube to destroy the beacon sending Jack's signal to the Borgified youth on Starfleet's armada. This was another area I was unsure on as how did the signal activate them in the first place, that was before Jack had connected himself, wasn't it? Maybe I'm wrong, but his sole purpose seemed to be to control them all, or send orders, so were they saying the Queen was too weak to be able to do that in her present state? I found the whole point of the season from the villains' perspective to be one of the weakest aspects, I already mentioned it made no sense for Jack to rush off to the Queen, just a case of desperately responding to mental or emotional stimuli, and made even less sense that he'd happily plug in and not want to leave!

Had he forgotten his Mother? They'd spent all these years together having all sorts of adventures and because of her upbringing (or was it due to his choice not to meet his Father?), he felt 'different' and an outsider, so he was quite comfortable being a pawn of the Queen. That side just wasn't written well, I'm not sure if he even knew what he was doing, because surely he was principled enough from what we saw of him that he wouldn't countenance the destruction of humanity (or at least all those living on Earth), and if we could have seen the Borg Queen actually deceiving him in some way so when we go into his mind, as Picard does, it was some perfect place of beauty and peace, with the idea the Queen was somehow saving people, that would have made it more plausible, but all we see is this black hole full of wispy green tendrils as if inside the Matrix. I see he's not thinking straight, but it was too much to believe he was actively participating in genocide all because he felt comforted by not being alone! Jack as a whole was one of the weaker characters, so the fact everything revolved around him was a fatal flaw in the season. Just too often he came across as irritating, and it's not that he's purely self-obsessed, he's done a lot of good, he shows care for others, like in Sickbay, but we weren't allowed enough time with that part of his personality and so I never fully sympathised with him. He was too much the angry young man without a really strong cause, after all he had the dedicated care of a devoted Mother, and yet he's always slightly aggrieved.

His line when trying to justify himself when Picard enters his mind, or shared Borg mental state, about there being no suffering, no loneliness and no fear in that place instantly made me think of the Nexus from 'Generations.' Jack is nowhere near the true hero Captain Kirk was, and even he found it difficult to leave this make-believe world, but given the vast differences in tone where you could understand why someone would want to exist in such a beautiful place compared with the ugly emptiness of Jack's vision, it only made Jack seem more out of touch that he was so keen on staying in the dark! And yet I found Picard's decision to stay in this miserable place with his son quite moving, even though it would surely have been simpler to explain it's about to be destroyed so it's only going to be dying together, but perhaps he didn't want to reveal what was going on outside since that would alert the Queen. Not that she seemed able to do anything about it, strung up on the wall like some half-opened cadaver - I can see why Alice Krige might not have wanted to be there physically, if she had a choice to actively return, as it wouldn't have been very dignified to string her up on a wall with all those prosthetics. I think I'd rather have seen the actress come back, but as her smooth, shiny self, perhaps like Data she could appear completely human with only the slightest slimy sense of her old identity, as part of pulling Jack into her lair, and only when it failed would she show her true form, twisted and old, but maybe that's too familiar a trope, it just would have given Krige a better part.

This version of the Queen appears to be decaying and has drawn on the lives of her 'crew' to stay alive. It's not entirely clear what went on, but she seems to blame Picard, although that could mean him as a representative of the Federation since it was a Starfleet ship, Voyager, that dealt the damage. Can we assume this is a result of the virus introduced in that series' finale? I wished we could have had a more clear connection, if so, it would have been helpful to get a better idea of how this happened. And I still say it makes little sense unless the virus somehow prevented Borg from assimilating others, which would make things crystal clear and could have been a terrific new side to them if it had been explained the Queen has to be more careful now since she has limited resources to achieve her goals. As it was I didn't mind the young people as drones as much in this episode, there was the odd firefight, but generally they were stuck in various parts of the ship. And of course it was all too easy for everyone to simply become de-assimilated (or unassimilated as they keep saying), which shows how non-invasive this Transporter based genetic manipulation actually was. A bit cheap, as good a concept as it could have been to use the Transporter to implant DNA into everyone that went through them. But it was a far cry from the incredibly traumatic experience Picard went through mentally, physically and emotionally to become Locutus, and even people like Seven who were assimilated physically, so I couldn't help see it as a bit gimmicky.

If Jack has been one of my least favourite characters, others have been vying for that title throughout the season, with Seven, Raffi and Shaw all in the running for the 'prestigious' award. We can discount Raffi since she definitely had less exposure compared to the first two seasons, Worf helped make her a more acceptable character, and she has a lovely happy ending where her son Gabe (don't know if it was the same actor seen in Season 1 as you never see him), allows her to see her granddaughter via PADD, which was a lovely vindication for her tough choice earlier in the season. Shaw also doesn't get to annoy me this time as he only appears via a log presented by Tuvok (hooray!), where he admits to Seven's good points, and I liked the touch of having him appear in spite of being killed off in the previous episode (a bit like Trip in the 'Enterprise' finale, where he gets a little scene after his death that underlines the event). That leaves Seven, and I did find her to be a bit frustrating, whether it was her 'grand' speech about them giving their lives, or the way she talks with Tuvok, I just can't get past this emotional way she speaks, or this tough-girl attitude that bears so little resemblance to the great character she was in 'Voyager.' I would have thought she'd have reverted to a more Seven-ish demeanour in front of her old mentor, Tuvok, but no, and though I knew it was coming, I just couldn't take her as being Captain, Jeri Ryan just comes across like she's having Seven put on an act all the time, it just doesn't seem genuine, a real shame. More than anyone else across the whole failed experiment of 'Picard' as a series, I feel it was she that was the worst destruction of a once-great character.

Picard himself I could often accuse of that title, too, but at least in this episode he comes as close to his old self as I think I've seen in any of the other twenty-nine episodes that led to this point - sitting in the Captain's Chair on the Bridge of the 'D,' Riker to the right of him, Deanna to the left, a rejuvenated Data, Geordi back in his 'TNG' Season 1 position next to the android (although shouldn't he have been at the back where the Engineering consoles were?), and Worf behind... it was quite magical, even if the thought did flit through my mind that this could very easily be a parody of old TV actors doing a skit where they reprise their long ago roles. But the thought didn't have a chance to land, had to fly away, because they play those roles so genuinely. The years have taken their toll, but if you took any random group of friends from their thirties or forties, then brought them back together twenty or thirty years later I doubt they'd look as good! But then these are actors, no doubt they got into shape, had time and makeup to try and get into the best examples of themselves, and it worked, because it really does feel like the final 'TNG' film, as incongruous as it was to have it set aboard the 'D' rather than the 'E.' I'm still torn on that, I love that the 'D' came back and it was such an incredible recreation (though I can imagine in future they'll just be able to CGI something identical around actors, which makes them actually rebuilding such an iconic set even more special), but the 'E' was where they'd ended up. I do prefer the 'D,' I just wish the 'E' hadn't been given such short shrift.

It wasn't the only thing to be treated disrespectfully, and just as that was a joke against Worf, this time we have an even more out of place 'humorous' moment when on returning from the rescue of Jack Crusher, he slumps down on a Bridge chair, promptly falls asleep and starts snoring! For one thing, he's supposed to be relatively young compared to his human comrades, and for another he's a Klingon, and so would be tougher. I know he exerted himself fighting the rather energetic (for gaunt, decomposing drones), Borg, but I felt it was a bit too far as jokes go. This time round I didn't actually feel as strongly about it as when I first saw it, but it was a symptom of the uneven tone of humour throughout the episode that missed as much as it hit and sometimes took me out of it. Like the alien cook Seven orders to take the Helm and he's stuttering about only being a cook, etc - he's a Starfleet officer, he's wearing the uniform, it doesn't matter that he's an alien, nor a cook (for that matter, why would he even exist since they use Replicators in this century, it's not 'Enterprise,' so it made absolutely no sense at all!), it just seemed inserted for a laugh at an inappropriate time, and to have a 'weak' man in front of two 'strong' women in Seven and Raffi commanding, so all round came off badly and ill-judged. Or there's the moment we learn Worf has a secret Phaser as the hilt of his sword (ah, that's why they had to create a new weapon rather than reuse the Mek'leth - for 'surprise' sake), and when Riker questions why he didn't use it before he justifies it by saying swords are fun. For such an efficient, serious man as Worf is, it didn't ring true (though I did enjoy Riker finding it so heavy, that actually was funny!).

Even the end where Deanna's having a strained counselling session with Data as he adapts to his new existence, could have come across as too silly, but I actually saw it as a great concept that I was surprised hadn't been addressed before when Data had his emotion chip! I suppose they never did that because it was towards the end of the series and in the films there was never time for that kind of scene, so I was impressed they thought of it. It also pleased me that the characters' particular abilities or skills were well used, whether that be Deanna's empathic powers and counselling knowledge, or Beverly's medical expertise in devising a cure for the Borgified crew (or when she's shown to be highly proficient with the weapons - that moment worked for humour as she protests at the others' surprised looks that a lot had happened in twenty years), to Worf's combat, Riker's command, and most importantly Picard being Picard - confident, assured, certain in his course, sensitive in the way he carries out his objectives. He could never go back to full Picard status, but Stewart did a creditable job of getting close in this episode, something I couldn't say for most of the episodes). Even Data got to show off his android reflexes by flying the 'D' into the Cube, even if it did seriously smack of 'Star Wars,' specifically the Millennium Falcon heading into the core of the Death Star in order to blow it up from the inside out. But although the 'D' does give the impression of some small fighter craft in some scenes, you still generally get the scale, it fires proper Phaser beams, and amazingly for a modern Trek production ('LD' excepted), has an actual shield bubble instead of a skintight energy field!

Some of the starship shots were pretty impressive, if all too brief, either the 'D' skimming the Cube, or the Titan barrelling down Phaser beam alley (again, real beams - sadly they undid some of the goodness by always having hand Phasers blat out bolts whenever there was shipboard fighting), seeing that hailstorm of lancing beams as the entire fleet piles in on Spacedock, apparently the lone defender of Earth (does it spread a shield round the planet? And aren't their Transporters just as compromised? Shouldn't older officers be under siege as much on the Spacedock as any starship?), was the greatest argument for why beams should be used over bolts - just show that scene to any executives who disagree! There were inevitably some disappointments when I saw the episode first time, mainly that this or that character didn't show up from 'DS9' or 'Voyager' (Admiral Janeway being the obvious one since they'd teased her several times through the season, with Tuvok coming across as her stand-in, although I don't think she was actually mentioned this time). When they went to Jupiter I was expecting to see Jupiter Station and possibly Doc Zimmerman (and maybe even the holographic Doctor, his creation), but no, and neither was there any connection to 'Enterprise.' Not that these things are integral to a successful story, or even a finale, the most important is how well things come together and I'm glad to say all the happy reunions at the end made the episode work and allowed me to leave aside my various annoyances.

For one thing they address some hanging issues, like whether there could still be Changelings hidden within the fleet, and how to catch them (even if it does once again make the Changelings look rather simple - they didn't ever use them to the standard of 'DS9'), and almost as importantly, whether they killed all those they were doubling - for the sake of Tuvok they couldn't do that, so as unlikely as it would be (much simpler, quicker and easier to vaporise a body you'd be impersonating!), we discover they didn't kill all their targets, but kept some alive for more information. Not that we ever got a sense of Tuvok's experiences, he shows up to promote Seven to Captain without any explanation, but it was enough that he showed up at all rather than leave his fate hanging (like Shelby, for example...). There was a lot of good stuff in the closing scenes, such as Riker, Picard and Geordi on the Bridge of the 'D' one last time to shut her down (Riker even mentioning he missed the voice of the Computer - more of Majel Barrett's vast catalogue of speech, and wonderful they got something of her in there again, however brief, it really felt like home). One thing I loved about that scene was the reuse of the nostalgic pre-end credits music from 'Generations' and how much that scene felt reminiscent of what had been the final moment for the 'D' at that time, a poignant sense of hope and yet the ending of another chapter which it should never have had, at the same time. It's also the only time a hero ship (or station!), has had a closedown onscreen, since the original Enterprise (or its successor, at least), just went off for one last spin, the Defiant was still on active duty (or its successor, at least), Voyager got home and there was no time for anything, and the NX-01 was still in operation at the end of their respective series'.

In some ways I'd have liked them to recreate even more of that final 'Generations' scene with just Riker and Picard discussing the possible future, but it made more sense this time to have Geordi be there as well since he lovingly rebuilt the ship, and as an Engineer, had a special affinity with it. I feel he was a little left out of the finale, though I'm glad they allowed time to see them say goodbye to the old ship, but I don't remember seeing his reunion with his daughters, and we never did find out if he was married to Leah Brahms as he should've been. He has little moments of friendship with Data and is left in command of the Bridge when Picard and the others go down to the Cube, though the android undermines his authority by refusing to do something and then convincing him he can get the ship inside! I thought Data as former Second Officer should've held command, but times had changed and maybe Commodore is a higher rank, and who knows if Data even has a rank now! But that wasn't the last ship to bear the name Enterprise, not even in this episode since we see the Titan-A has been rechristened the Enterprise-G under Seven's command, with Jack fast-tracked to the rank of Ensign... Hmm, this was the one fly in the ointment. They do allow a year to pass so Jack must have had some training and it's not like Nog was at Starfleet Academy four years before coming back to DS9, so it's not unprecedented, but... I wasn't sure about that. Nor introducing Titan as the 'G.' To me that seemed a slap in the face to the brave crew and the Captain they lost (perhaps a reason why - a sort of acknowledgement that Shaw's Captaincy was over, his time in command of the Titan, it's last Captain, that could be a way to justify it, but it wasn't stated), or it could be seen as a great honour to be awarded the legendary mantle. It shows the 'F' was destroyed or completely incapacitated, a way to include some 'modern' continuity from the wilderness years, but then move right on from it to something the current makers had created.

It's understandable, but although there was a big push for a 'Star Trek: Legacy' series featuring Seven as Captain, Raffi as First Officer (they keep insisting on putting those two together against all reason), in the subsequent years it's all gone quiet as there's not much money for new Trek now, it seems. While I'd be keen on a 'Legacy' series that featured the 'TNG'/'DS9'/'Voyager' (and maybe, somehow, 'Enterprise,' too!), casts carrying it along with some new faces, I wouldn't want to see Seven as Captain or Raffi (in any capacity!), nor Jack Crusher. About the only character I wouldn't mind seeing again was Sidney La Forge. So if that final set-up was indicative of what the series would be I'm relieved they haven't made it (though if 'Section 31' had been well received I'm sure a 'Legacy' streaming film would have been next in line), as I don't think I could stand most of those people without the balm of the 'TNG' characters. On the other hand, if Patrick Stewart got his way and they had another 'TNG' reunion I'd love to see that, but they're all getting old, if not elderly in Stewart's case, and the years are running out, so I very much doubt it'll happen now. Which once again reminds me to cherish this moment because it'll never come again - even the bar scene and the poker that followed it worked for me much more than on original viewing. Again with the inappropriate humour where Data's lowering the tone about to tell a rude limerick, but then they get the tone so perfectly right, with Picard reciting a quote from Shakespeare spoken over the 'First Contact' theme and suggesting a few rounds of poker in a recall of how the TV series ended.

Originally, the scene came across like it was just the actors rather than the characters (although I may be thinking of the extended version included as a DVD extra which would've been even more natural, although I do like that they were allowed to riff and enjoy the moment, letting the camera run), but this time I did see it as the characters and I loved the overhead shot of them playing as the credits come up and the 'TNG' theme sounds, such an effective and beautiful way to conclude, far better than the ending to 'Nemesis.' But of course it's not really the end, they may be nearing the end of their lives, but they are all still living and that's the greatest gift the season could have given us, protecting the core family, not some horrible sacrifice or shock death, but in keeping with the spirit of hope and optimism that (despite being able to argue was misplaced), was a hallmark of old Trek. That feeling of warmth permeated the episode and if this really is the last time we'll see any or all of them, almost certainly all of them together again, it was a worthy way to finish out something that has meant so much to so many. But it's not all over as we have one more scene, typical of superhero fare these days, setup for what could come next: a surprise visit from Q (whom I at first thought was wearing the robes of a Bajoran Vedek!), making it clear the mantle has passed from Jean-Luc to his son. Nice that they pulled back on Q's death at the end of Season 2 - he's immortal so it made no sense for him to die. Maybe that was all for Picard's benefit and he always intended to return to the family line and 'haunt' Jack. An interesting choice, very much appearing to be there solely to suggest a future premise, which I don't really mind because I doubt it'll happen, and if it did I imagine Q would send a young, hip female Q to 'study' Jack rather than it being old John de Lancie showing up week to week.

One thing I really didn't like about the 'G' setup was how well it was summed up by Jack, I think, who says they gave the ship to a bunch of ne'er-do-wells and rule-breakers, an obsession with modern Trek that began with Burnham (or even the Kelvin films where Kirk's this brash rebel so different to our Kirk), who becomes a criminal right away and in the space of a few years is Captain rather than serving out her sentence! They seem to want outsiders, always going to 'outside Federation space' for stories, and rebellious types, while Starfleet and/or the Federation are often the villain. There's been a serious deemphasis on achievement, excellence and professionalism, especially when it comes to the young which I can only see as trying to encourage younger viewers by lowering the bar rather than giving idealised heroes. Picard himself was one of the biggest culprits of this misguided, damaging attitude that has turned Trek from a great, inspiring historical saga into a weak entity struggling for recognition and only occasionally reaching even the moderate heights of the power the average episode of old reached. Just look at Jack, waltzing onto the Bridge and we're supposed to believe he's now Captain until Seven shuts down his antics (trouble is, you could almost believe it to be true judging by recent standards!), but he doesn't even know what role he's there to take on! Seven tells him he'll be 'Special Counsellor' to the Captain, which sounded so much like Naomi Wildman's childhood role of 'Captain's Assistant' I felt they were being really condescending to him! They had to have him aboard so they make up a role? And then you've got the whole emphasis on what a Captain says to get going, a terrible trope which they somewhat subvert by cutting away just before Seven speaks, as if we're going to be on tenterhooks to find out what her unique phrase will be, but we'll have to wait for the series. No.

Really, though, these things were minor and as a whole, the episode worked quite well. You just can't have an entire cast come together and it fail utterly, but while it's all so recognisable and reassuring there aren't a great deal of Trekferences - the House of Martok is spoken of again by Raffi when she and Worf say their goodbyes. Sadly no sign of J.G. Hertzler, even in a minor cameo, which for once I'd have taken, but then Worf's 'DS9' legacy was severely stunted with no mention of his former wife, Jadzia (though I was pleased Trill Dr. Ohk got to be part of the Bridge action and wasn't forgotten), or friends on DS9, but I can also see it's so many years after that it wasn't necessary from Worf's perspective and they got a lot in over the course of the season. He mentions going off to do some 'Mugato meditation' (meditating about Mugato? Meditating with Mugato? Actually I can see that being a Klingon test, throwing someone in a room with a bunch of the ape creatures, although weren't they supposed to be almost extinct?). Jack mentions something about a Tyrellian (they had to get one of the 'T' species in here somehow, it's tradition), and the scanner Riker uses on the Cube has that same mournful 'Star Trek II' scanner blip as they track down life signs, which they'd used before. But the majority of the Trekferences were right there in front of your face: the entire 'TNG' cast, the Borg Queen, Walter Koenig, Majel Barrett, the Enterprise-D (she's been featured in some way in more Trek finales than anyone else since she was in those of 'TOS,' the films, 'TNG,' 'DS9,' 'Voyager' and 'Enterprise' - quite a record).

One notable face I spotted was James MacKinnon, the makeup guy, who has an actual role as a Bajoran, part of Seven's team that take back the Titan's Bridge (somehow routing Transporters through Phasers... sounds clever, but not sure about the plausibility!), although it was a bit distracting since I know him from behind the scenes features on the DVDs! But they did very well with the returning cast from past Trek across the season. I could always want more and we still haven't had a 'DS9'-specific character return (in live action), and it's looking increasingly unlikely as the years roll by, which I suppose is a good thing since they can't ruin them, or the greatest Trek series, it's almost like it has a heavy shield around it. At the end of 'Picard' Season 1 I didn't think I'd ever go back to reviewing episodes made in the Kurtzman era, so it's been nice to get into some seasons that I actually gained some enjoyment from. I still can't imagine I'd want to go back through 'Picard' Season 2, 'DSC' 3-4 (and 5, which I've yet to see), 'SNW' or even 'Prodigy' (which I find a bit Fisher Price Trek), but at least I've covered the relatively good stuff and will be happy to get back to 'LD' with Seasons 3 and 4. I don't know if the 'TNG' cast should be brought back again after this, but I'd much rather see them than 'Section 31,' more 'SNW' or 'Starfleet Academy' which appear to be the only options in the near future. Matalas didn't quite wholeheartedly salvage the entirety of modern Trek with Season 3, but he did at least prevent 'Picard' from limping off to be shot round the back of the barn, and I would certainly rewatch it again in future.

***

Võx

 DVD, Picard S3 (Võx)

Jack Crusher, Jr. had been a rather unappealing character, from his 'mystery' identity, to his casual disrespect and self-absorbed attitude, but this time he really takes the biscuit - after the whole season had been about protecting him from the marauding pursuers of Changeling Vadic and her beak-faced crew, upon learning the Borg are behind his strange nightmares and he needs to be kept a prisoner for his and everyone else's sake, he rushes off to seek the Borg Queen! How stupid can one man be, and how unsympathetic can one character be? The whole season! It was all about protecting him! And thanks to his incredibly selfish, emotional need to know what it's all about he puts everyone's lives at danger, very far from the Starfleet way. I suppose you could say he's as equally motivated to run from his friends and colleagues right into the waiting arms of the enemy to protect them as he is to unlock the mystery of himself, but it was such a hotheaded act and he's not a teenager any more, he should have more sense. And who was to say he would have put them in danger if he had stayed, which makes it increasingly, groan-worthily appear it's more to satisfy his curiosity, which doesn't look good at all... Again, in his defence you can argue Picard could have broken it to him in a more gentle, diplomatic fashion, or you could if he'd been as insensitive and out of touch with others as he's been shown to be across too much of the last three seasons, except that he was quite gentle, and all round Picard (and Stewart's acting), have been much closer to what he's supposed to be, exhibiting the qualities or at least a better line delivery, of the Picard we knew before he got old and badly written.

If Jack doesn't have even the leg of Picard's blurting exposition to stand on as excuse for his actions, it makes him look even worse. Perhaps Jean-Luc should have been a touch more sensitive from a perspective of Fatherhood, insisting he'll do whatever it takes to protect his damaged son to make up for the bad genes he saddled him with, or if Jack didn't just fly off the handle, then things might have been different, but it ends up looking like Jack isn't trusted and doesn't trust, so decides to go his own way (he can apparently control more than one person at a time, too, as he uses both Security officers to flank him, though I'm not sure it fits with what we saw before that he can move around normally himself, stalking down the corridor, while simultaneously controlling his guards). Unfortunately, that's exactly what the Borg Queen needed at that moment to enact her carefully timed plan of taking over the fleet. At least I think that's the case... The story gets overly convoluted and because so much of this episode is exposition you have to pay close attention to what's being said as it all comes out and the plot unravels, which would be my biggest (but not only criticism), of this penultimate episode of the series, and potentially 24th/25th Century live action Trek indefinitely. Can we say Jack's running away is down to him being so strongly 'activated,' or is it just pigheadedness that drives him to rush off from even his Mother? Is it Deanna's fault for pushing him to open the door in his mind from which all those slightly poor red CGI veins (or vines as she calls them), originate? She didn't get to drive the ship this time, but is she responsible for metaphorically crashing the season?

The question is, what would the Borg Queen have done if Jack hadn't torpedoed straight for her? The timing was critical, presumably, she needed Jack to be the transmitter to activate all the under-25s in Starfleet's, well, star fleet, or am I getting the wrong end of the tubule? Would they still have been activated if Jack had been elsewhere? It's not clear to me, but to go the whole season in one direction, then throw out all the various plotting and actions because Jack gets stroppy and undermines every effort to prevent him from being captured is a major failure of writing, to me. If he came to the decision alone as the only way to save everyone that would be one thing, but as I've mentioned, he looks very self-obsessed more than any other motivation that can be read into it. It might have been exciting to see Borg Cubes coming for the Titan, though that only reinforces the idea that the majority of this season has been treading water (as is sadly the case with serialised seasons, at least in Trek), waiting for the big finale, which is, I suppose the point: you're intentionally stringing your audience along for as long as possible until there's a big final confrontation. It's a model, it's a system, it's a formula, but not one that plays to Trek's strengths. Fortunately, for this particular season it works much better because the draw has been something other than plot: the reunion of the 'TNG' cast, so that gradual coming together has been the glue which held it together.

Once again, like the previous episode, the final scenes of this one almost make up for the lack in the majority of it (though there are some definite highs along the way), and leaves me wishing the goodness could have capped a great story. But to have all those characters not just in the same room, breathing the same air, but walking reverently onto the Bridge of the Enterprise-D, a spotless recreation from the production team, only serves to plunge the knife in further on the fact that the lost aesthetics of Trek needn't have been discarded. It still looks as immaculate, futuristic and simply beautiful as it ever did. I've always loved when Trek has revisited the past by bringing back part of an old ship, whether that be the original Enterprise, the Excelsior, another Constitution, or the 'D,' but all of these examples were achieved in old Trek, while the new has chosen to reimagine and alter, much to the detriment of the visual canon and continuity (just one of many reasons 'DSC' and 'SNW' can't succeed for me - they never seemed to care about Trek history, even while inserting themselves into it, which is a major flaw for a serious Trekker). You can point to the beauty of 'Lower Decks' returning to the aesthetic, and 'Prodigy' has nice moments, such as their Holodeck recreation of the 'D' Bridge, but live action is different, and this more than anything else shouts out that Trek is back!

Picard jokes of all the things he's missed being with his old comrades, he's realised what he missed most: the carpet. This was clearly an intentional dig at the modern Trek aesthetic where everything has to be shiny floors and lights blinding you out of the gloom at every opportunity, but I think it also points to a reality about that, too. I was with Picard, and where he may have been lighthearted about it, encapsulating the moment of reunion with their most powerful shared experience of their former careers, I took it seriously and loved every short second we spent on that Bridge - they even have Geordi explain how it came to be, that the Saucer was recovered from Veridian III (a uniquely 'Generations' reference, my favourite Trek film, how wonderful!), and the engines were formerly of the USS Syracuse, and which he's tinkered with for the past twenty years. Is that how long he's been managing the Fleet Museum or was he afforded a priority berth somewhere he could keep coming back to work on it? That modern Trek would not only make mention of key ship history, but also explain how it came to be, is a huge joy and something missing from much of this TV era where you sometimes get the impression they either didn't know about something, or worse, didn't care, or think the audience would! It shows the writing of this season in particular had its heart in the right place even if it found Trek as difficult to write as what had recently come before.

'LD' has to get some of the credit for making it acceptable to reference the past of characters and ships that we knew, even if they started out on overdrive, but it is the little things like explaining how the Enterprise-D can be in one piece, that matters to people like me. It's a shame they couldn't get everything right, though... And there is one absolute clanger in this episode, and just as Jack as the focus of the season messes up at the end, the other main focus has been Frontier Day, the 250th Anniversary since... mumble, mumble. It hadn't been entirely clear, but this time we get not only a new flagship (presumably, since it's leading the celebrations), the Enterprise-F, but another returning character in Admiral Elizabeth Shelby to tell us the exact meaning of the big day. And it is... drum roll... to mark two hundred and fifty years, or a quarter of a millennium (which puts Trek in its perspective!), since the launch of the first Enterprise, the NX-01, which led to the birth of... I thought she was going to say the Federation, but apparently it was the birth of Starfleet! Is that the Starfleet Captain Archer and his crew worked for and had been around some time even before the launch of the NX-01? That would be a yes. Whoops! You can't catch everything, I understand that, but such a key part of Trek history getting misrepresented or misinterpreted - Terry Matalas, the man behind the season, and who we can be thankful to for so many things, even worked on 'Enterprise,' so to get a detail like that mixed up is astounding! I can only put it down to the stress of this late in the season where everything has to come together, because that's a massive booboo.

In terms of the actual reveal of the 'F,' I loved it. The fireworks reminded me of Voyager's triumphant return at the end of its series, the ship itself was lovingly presented and allowed time to shine, so much so that I wished we could see more of her, and while you can tell they didn't have the money for a proper Bridge set as it's mostly Shelby alone on a Captain's Chair in a blank, empty space, it's another throwback to TV Trek of old when they similarly had to conserve budget when it came to guest ships, so I didn't mind. What I did mind was bringing back another 'legacy' character, as they call them these days, only to kill her off after five minutes. Having Shelby as the voice (or Vox?), of the fleet operations was a nice touch since she was so unlikeable back in 'TNG,' and also that she was so key to the big Borg engagement in those episodes, so I can see the mental lineage of getting her to this point, but she's not really a character, just a speech, she doesn't really even get to interact with Picard or any of our characters before she's shot by her crew. In one sense you can suggest that perhaps this was Matalas' idea as revenge for how she treated Riker, maybe, and I didn't like that impression. It's also not the only one in the episode: they treat the Enterprise-E with disdain as if to say we don't care about that ship, only the original 'TNG' for us, and I had always wanted to see the 'E' again as such a sleek, beautiful design that helped make the 'TNG' films be even more advanced and cinematic than the TV series they'd come from.

In both cases there's room for speculation, and if, as Matalas has said, even the death of Ro Laren isn't supposed to be certain, then not seeing Shelby definitively die also has to count as room for manoeuvre should they ever wish to bring her back. The evidence is that we see two of her crew shoot her with Phasers, you even see the fiery red marks as she's hit, but unlike just about every other Phaser hit in this season, she doesn't dissolve into sparks so there's still hope. It just seems the intent was to suggest she was dead as they never mentioned her fate one way or the other, in this episode or the next and I don't like something hanging like that. Not that it really matters, we're unlikely to see any of these characters again, so Shelby living or dying is a very minor matter, but my feeling is that if you're going to bring back someone it needs to be in a meaningful way, where they can have interaction with our characters, otherwise it's just a little Easter egg, and while they're fine, they're ultimately unsatisfying compared to most of what we've been given this season. The 'E's demise is similarly uncertain, but I didn't like the flippant way it was turned into a joke, and not only that, but it's a joke about Worf's command ability, with the implication being (and they might even have mentioned he was its Captain earlier in the season, I can't remember), he was responsible for its loss, since he defensively denies 'it' was not his fault, whatever 'it' was.

One of my problems with this episode is they don't get the tone right sometimes when it comes to the humour. For example, moments with Data were terrific, such as when Geordi asks for more positivity and he pleasantly obliges, saying, "I hope we die quickly," which is very much the kind of Data thing he would say. I think Data as a whole was much more self-aware by 'Nemesis,' but then if you think this is a kind of Data reborn, much like Spock in 'Star Trek IV,' but not quite as strongly, it's easier to see him as still not exactly himself, which can conveniently and adequately justify anything they do with him. I felt like that joke was one of the moments they got the humour right, but too many times they didn't, like with the dig at the 'E,' or Seven offhandedly referring to Data as 'the robot.' In that scene she very much regressed into the Seasons 1 and 2 version of the character where she was brash, casual, flippant, uncaring about precision and specifics or showing intelligence and knowledge, sensitivity she slowly gained on Voyager that made her character so appealing and compelling to watch. All that was sacrificed on the altar of what the writers thought was 'cool,' but which made me greatly dislike her. She doesn't have much to do in this episode as the focus has shifted to the 'TNG' cast having their moment, and it's not a big problem, but it reminds why, without Shaw around it looks like she'll revert back to that awful version of Seven, all for the sake of a 'laugh' at someone treating the venerated and loved android with such disregard.

I'm sure many people would have dreamed of Seven of Nine and Data meeting - they were the outsider character growing towards humanity in their respective series', so to have that potential scene of mutual understanding and similarity lost so they can instead have a cheap joke, is exactly the kind of crude approach to drama, and cruel approach to expectations that has been just one more thing about modern Trek to put me off, and why having Seven here has really made little difference, especially in these later episodes. The same, to some extent, can be said of Worf, who has fallen back into his 'TNG' position of just being one of the gang, mostly a solid presence in the background, literally, when he takes up his old station at the horseshoe, though it didn't even quite register at the time, probably because the cinematic widescreen aspect ratio doesn't really suit a Bridge built for 4:3 Fullscreen, although it wasn't a problem in 'Generations,' so perhaps it just wasn't well-framed by Matalas as Director? Worf on 'DS9' became such an important figure, elevated beyond his role on 'TNG' and far less the butt of jokes, that it's hard to return him to that lesser stature, although they got the humour right when everyone's pouring out love for their old ship and he bluntly complains that the weapons were better on the 'E'! It's a very Worf thing to do, he isn't one to be particularly sentimental about things, though he acquiesces when the sensitive Deanna chastises him, and pretends to be very happy.

It's moments like these that lift this season above all the other live action seasons we've had in the Kurtzman era, and why it was such a good move to bring in these old characters instead of insisting on continuing the drab, boring, unhappy version of 'Picard' they'd presented us with prior. And having them get to be together on the 'D,' so homely and attractive, was a masterstroke and shows where the money went. I would say the lighting is a bit pale and makes the place look different, somewhat dingy to the bright place it used to be, and as amazing as the recreation of the Bridge was, there is a sense that this is all they could build so it does feel somewhat limited rather than the original set where people were coming and going between Turbolifts or the Briefing Room, so I couldn't quite help but feel this was a set, but in the moment it was simply incredible and a real joy - not since the series finale of 'Enterprise' had any of the 'D' been recreated, and there it was other sets, like corridors, Quarters or the Holodeck rather than the Bridge, so taken together, the main parts (other than the impressive Engineering which would require a lot more money!), have nicely existed outside of their own series, and that always makes me happy to see. And they even managed to find Majel Barrett's voice for the Computer, a brilliant icing on the cake and something that's been very much missing from this era as she used to bind all the past series' together. Lovely!

You even get Alice Krige back as the voice of the Borg Queen, and no matter who they go to for new versions, they always come back to her as the original and by far the best, although I was very disappointed it was only a voice role. We only see the back of her head in this episode, so it didn't matter, but in the finale it would have been good to see Krige. Like John De Lancie's Q before her, she made her return debut in 'LD,' which was quite a fun episode, but I think they'd been mixing n her voice with Beverly's across this season of 'Picard,' I'm not sure when I first started noticing it as they were careful to keep it very subtle and for the most part chose misdirection with Crusher as the trick, but it was good to have that connection back to 'First Contact.' I'm not so sure her character's plan made sense, however: employ a disaffected sect of Changelings to infiltrate every Starfleet ship in order to integrate portions of Picard's DNA into every Transporter system so that whenever anyone beamed they were implanted with it, which was some kind of organic technology transmitter (like bees in a hive, or birds flocking together - the Trek explanation!), which then activates everyone under the age of twenty-five (puts a new spin on 'Challenge 25' for those working in retail!), turns them Borg and leads them to take over the fleet. So did this new technological development of having the fleet interconnected so they could act as one have any bearing or was that supposed to show misguided symmetry of Starfleet top brass becoming like the Borg?

The thing about modern Trek is they love to make Starfleet the villain! I know we had officials in 'TOS' that tended to cause problems, and Admirals were the same in 'TNG' onwards, but Starfleet itself as either a villain, or secretly controlled by villains (like Commander Oh in Season 1, or the other Romulan spy who was working for her), does get a little tired. It's like they take every opportunity to deconstruct the positive aspects of Trek to make it more and more Dystopian, and it's quite depressing. I'm not saying that about this particular story, because Starfleet just come across as misguided (unlike the Season 3 finale of 'LD' where they also had connected ships, although they were AI controlled). For one thing, Starfleet's mission is to seek out new life and civilisations, and they boldly go one ship at a time so there doesn't seem to be that much call for the fleet acting as one, since apart from this once-in-a-two-hundred-and-fifty-year event, they're all going to be off in different directions! I'd also insert a little complaint here that when you're showing all these Starfleet ships it would have been nice to be able to see them, rather than just being dots in space! How about some glorious flybys as the 'F' was given, swoop us through the ranks - at least have some views where you're up close to some. I assume this is another budgetary issue, and it does reflect the old days when they were still using models on 'DS9' and having to pull off hundreds of ships in battle they had to use off the shelf model kits or Christmas ornaments to represent ships further away, not having the time or money to build that many, and that worked very well, except that we were getting more detailed views and closer, up front, so there was a sense of scale.

It's the same way I felt about the internal of the shuttle Jack steals - I don't get a sense of scale as you used to when a Runabout or shuttle were filmed, and that has to be down to the way they shoot things so often in modern times, where you have to be zoomed in on a character rather than establishing shots of the environment he's inhabiting. At least when he gets to the vast Borg Cube (Tactical Cube?), it's back to the messy, untidy corridors of old, with their pipes and conduits strewn around and smoke hissing, while evil green lights give a sense of depth. Much better than the clean, tidy, huge blocky corridors seen in Season 1, but I suppose that could be justified by saying all the Borg rubbish had been cleaned out, although that's not the impression I had at the time. They make a major retcon in revealing that Picard never had Irumodic Syndrome in the first place, it was just the side effects of the implanted organic Borg tech that were designed to one day be spread to his offspring, I assume, so the Borg could one day use it... Yeah, it gets a bit hazy then, because why would the Borg put in motion such a longterm plan with such uncertain probability of success. Were they really hoping he'd have children and thus, his immoral act birthed a new threat when he could just as easily have remained childless until death, or was it meant as something where he, himself, could have been co-opted? And why would the Borg kill people when their goal has always been assimilation? And do we know if there are other Changelings at large within the fleet? And when they escape in a maintenance shuttle shouldn't there be lots of other shuttles and escape pods as others have done the same, or theirs would stick out like a sore thumb? Best not to think too much about it because I don't think it makes sense, and if the Borg did that to Picard then why wouldn't they have done it to some other human, and why wait so long, and... oh dear.

At least it gives a rationale for how Picard could hear the Borg in his mind even after the technology had been removed from him, although even that I fear was a product of 'First Contact,' I don't think it ever happened in 'TNG.' But it was a cool development and seemed to make sense, we didn't need a reason, you just assume that because they left some indeterminate thing of themselves in him, not a physical object, but a mental connection, it was a residual effect, but I like that we now know it was due to specific tech that Starfleet couldn't detect back then. It does throw up all kinds of questions about why the Borg would even keep using mechanical parts if they have organic tech now, and also smacks of the Cylons in modern 'Battlestar Galactica,' just like the modified Changelings who could apparently simulate real flesh now - not so keen on all that. Also, when Picard said he could still hear the Borg after he was assimilated I'm assuming he meant after the event, once he'd been de-assimilated, since of course he could hear the Borg after he was assimilated, that's the point of assimilation! The reveal that it was the pesky Borg all along and they would've gotten away with it if... actually, no, they wouldn't have gotten away with it if they needed Jack as the transmitter, or are they saying the Transporter stuff with the DNA in the library– I mean the under-25s would have been activated anyway, because it was unclear if Jack getting hooked up had anything to do with that or it was just the time the Borg chose and they have a more deadly thing planned with Jack as transmitter, but I don't remember exactly what happens in the finale.

But anyway, I meant to say the Borg reveal would have had more weight and power if we hadn't already dealt with them for the past two inferior seasons, so they don't quite have the impact they should have had. I know Beverly says no one's seen or heard from them in over a decade, but we've seen and heard from a version of them quite a lot lately! Even the animated series' have got in on the action, and while 'LD' featured them on the Holodeck, 'Prodigy' met them for real, if far away in the Delta Quadrant, which doesn't step on any toes and shows they weren't dormant or destroyed. It wasn't a bad twist to make youngsters be the threat, especially as the series is about seasoned, mature characters well out of that category. I don't think they fully exploited the concept, as while there is some concern from everyone having to escape these sudden attacks from enemies within, it's all rather perfunctory, tension not being something strongly accomplished in modern Trek, even on this season. For example, I know it was done for dramatic effect to have Ensign Esmar clump up the steps and sit on the Captain's Chair, but it wasn't a very Borg thing to do. They wouldn't care about such imagery (especially as there's no one around to see it, so it wasn't even done for intimidation effect), nor do they care about comfort - when was the last time you saw a drone sit down? That's right, they don't, and even the de-assimilated Seven found it hard to sit since it was such an alien concept to her. They don't even lie down to regenerate, but stand stiffly in their Regeneration Chambers.

It's not a problem, you can just say these aren't fully Borgified drones so they're a slightly different concept to normal Borg, but it's just the visual language that Trek was so good at adhering to which was a sort of shorthand that regular viewers would come to learn, that is missing these days. I was glad at least to hear Captain Shaw (remember him, he's the guy captaining the ship, remember?), order them to use stun only, although it used to be the Starfleet way that 'kill' setting was only used in extremes because they'd rather avoid killing if they can. At least these semi-Borg don't develop immunity to Phaser blasts, another sign they aren't quite fully Borg, but also a sign that things can all go back to normal quite easily if we can just stop these pesky Borg at their source, which undermined the tension quite a lot for me. Like Seven and (thankfully), Raffi, Shaw has been in the background more and more as we've focused on the 'TNG' characters, which is fine and good, but he's almost an afterthought now, like when they work out what needs to be done and rather than including the Captain of the ship in the conversation Picard just calls up to the Bridge to tell him where to go! It's a bit demeaning. It at least reminds you there is a Captain, but he doesn't have much authority now. Perhaps his lessening as the season went on also makes it harder to care about his death, dropped by a good shot in a corridor, although there's also the sense that he foolhardily looked behind him at the wrong moment, so even his last act was a rash mistake that got him needlessly killed. Except it wasn't needless, it was needed since he only really existed as a barrier for Seven to surpass to the captaincy.

It's a little strange that throughout the season people have been dying by Phaser, reduced to showers of sparks, except in this case he just falls to the deck so Seven can have that goodbye scene and he can 'validate' her 'chosen' 'identity.' It struck me as the height of inappropriateness to start calling her by a Borg designation now the Borg have suddenly become an active and present enemy again. But that whole thing is a failure to accept or understand Seven's journey towards her humanity that we were landed with right from Season 1. I just wish that like a few other things it had been retconned over, avoided, or maybe Seven wasn't even in it at all, a sentiment I never could have imagined myself wishing before they brought the character back for 'Picard.' It's moments like this that cloud what could have been a good episode, although even if it had been full of the best scenes (such as Data and Picard's exchange in the Briefing Room where there's nothing he can say so he just puts his hand comfortingly on Picard's shoulder, the kind of beautifully touching moment I never thought I'd see again in Trek), it still wouldn't have papered over the heavily expositional and confusing storytelling or the clunking mistakes. I haven't appreciated the horror tropes of Jack's mental imagery with its very specific type of music and the old-fashioned wooden door, etc, it was all very derivative and didn't fit the 'TNG' tone, not to mention they get in yet another old-timey song in the opening scenes, which they seem to love.

Still, it remained very heartwarming to see the old cast back, acting in scenes all together on occasion, even the recap of the previous episode made me smile internally and reflect that this is like a final film in the series, one they never got, even if it also has more of a 'TNG' flavour since there is so much talk. But when it's meaningful talk it works and, if anything, makes me hungrier for more of the cast together as it's like we didn't have enough of them since the drawing closer of all these people was meant to be the point of all that waiting to get to this two-part finale. Others haven't been forgotten, either, with a USS Pulaski a nice little Trekference to the second doctor of the series, and Beverly saying how she gave her first son Wesley space and then lost him to it, and now she's done the opposite with Jack. More information on Wesley Crusher would have been good, but it's not really relevant to what's going on here and you can't fit everything in. They did their best, though, with starship names representing various characters and behind the scenes people (USS Okuda, USS Drexler, USS Trumbull, USS Hikaru-Sulu, just to be clear in case we thought it was for another Sulu, USS Cochrane, USS Mandel, USS Ross for the Admiral of that name, I hope - may have gone a bit over the top with all that!), and even hear the current Captain of the Excelsior's voice (Nolan North, a regular contributor to modern Trek, from 'Into Darkness' to varied credits on 'LD').

We see Data still has emotions as he gets choked up upon seeing the 'D,' which is an interesting revelation in case anyone was wondering about the emotion chip, although the line between organic and tech is apparently so blurred now that maybe he doesn't even need one... I'm not sure about Geordi's description of the 'D' as being analogue, it all looks pretty digital to me, but I take it as meaning in comparison to the fleet synchronisation and it's as good a reason as any to justify bringing the old series' starship back to life, I'm certainly not going to complain. I might complain that Picard's shirt tug at the end was very feeble, but it's more difficult to do wearing a jacket over your top, so that really is a nitpick, and it in no way dampens the high of the ending as our beloved crew set out to right wrongs, all aboard their old ship once again, and at least the end is much better than the sum of the episode's parts, even if parts do drag it down. It is disappointing the Enterprise-F, whose original creation was actually a prize in a competition to design it for 'Star Trek Online' quite a few years ago, would turn out to be a very short-lived addition to official screen canon (for reasons that would become painfully obvious in the finale), but I do appreciate they bothered to include it at all (unlike the 'E,' grrr [gnashing of teeth]), and it undeniably looked the part - spin off? All that remains is to tackle the last ever episode, overlooking the flaws to try and enjoy what will probably be the final coming together of the 'TNG' cast.

**

Surrender

 DVD, Picard S3 (Surrender)

A revelation came to me after watching this, and that was the episode itself is playing out the battle between Data and Lore: the good parts are fighting to dominate, while the bad parts are doing the same, but unfortunately for the quality of the storytelling, unlike the events within it, the bad ultimately wins out! I so wanted this to work, I was toying with the idea of giving it a better rating, but while I liked it slightly better than on original viewing, and while I was once again hoping those memorable Data/Lore scenes weren't part of a weaker episode which turned out not to quite be the case, I couldn't justify the episode as a whole and seemed mostly filler designed to keep us treading water until the big two-part finale, as if taking four times as long to get there, like the opposite of Scotty's rule of giving repair estimates four times what it would actually take, the same dialogue over and over when Trek used to be so tight and had such a command of brevity to create its drama. For example, it showed elements of creative flair in the directing, from the opening looking out from the viewing port on the Bridge's ceiling, to the POV of Jack Crusher while he enters into his special powers of taking control of someone, but then they go and use annoying shaky-cam during simple dialogue scenes as if we're in a Bourne film, the viewer hovering breathlessly nearby as if spying out the scene. Some of the dialogue came out a bit unskilled, too, whether it be Sidney La Forge explaining Jack's ability, or notably Picard expressing his lack of understanding, to Vadic's various expressions in general. Yet I can be an angel's advocate even there, as I liked seeing Sidney support Jack, having experienced his ability firsthand, while Picard has never been more Picard in his own series than when he sits at the head of the Briefing Room table with all his old crew gathered around just like the old days.

Vadic, though, remains Vadic unto death. The only consolation with her is that she's finally dealt with, but it's been a long, slow dealing in a season that has mostly managed to distract from its gradual, almost glacial plotting progress with the sleight of hand of introducing each new 'TNG' character, but has still felt drawn out (just as Vadic takes her time here, enjoying torturing her captives slowly, evoking pleasure in power and evil). It just seems modern, serialised Trek is the toughest to get right, and while I'd take this season over all the other live action, it still shows so many of the same problems. A cartoonish villain being just one of many. There are always going to be holes in the story, no matter the Trek, but a couple of big ones that seemed very obvious to me were: one, that if Jack can take over people against their will, why not go for the target with the greatest power, namely Vadic; and two, why would a starship Bridge have an emergency evacuation hatch that can tip the whole lot out into space?! Neither of these made sense and appeared a way to, one, insert gratuitous scene of torture, and two, flush the villain out of the series because she's served her purpose in diverting the heroes from getting to grips with the 'real' villain of the piece too quickly. Vadic was really just one of those 'mysteries' so beloved of modern Trek, aping modern TV and film, to distract from a lack of substance, in the same vein as Jack's Real Identity, that is supposed to carry us through the trudging pace of the season, and to some extent the latter worked, but to no extent did Vadic work.

The idea of an offshoot group of Changelings wasn't a bad notion and does make sense, even if it took so long for them to get their own back on the victors of the Dominion War, but they weren't well portrayed or well set up - we're supposed to feel some sympathy towards Vadic (no one else because they're all faceless cannon fodder goons only there to be the muscle and to provide space for a 'cool' scene where Raffi can take them all out like a whirling dervish, nothing like the cunning, solitary threats faced from real Changelings), but I only felt horror that Starfleet sanctioned experiments on sentient beings, and I read one online comment that described them as deranged to think they could turn these experiments to their own use as spies, and I heartily agree! But it was the confused nature of these Changelings that was the ultimate downfall: are they flesh and blood, are they mimicking the same, are they something else? Why do the minions speak in clicks and grunts? What was really the point of it all except as a delaying tactic to give us plot to wade through until we get to the end of the season and series? It came home to me once again when Worf rescues Riker and Troi Riker-Troi (!), from the Brig of the Shrike by stabbing the masked Changeling guard right through the middle before blasting it (him?), to the usual uninspired shower of silly sparks that Phaser fire results in now. We see a little blood, and we know they have internal organs, but did that kill the guard, or was that why Worf also had to Phaser it to bits? And does Starfleet sanction wanton killing like that, could he not have stunned the guy?

But then that would give Starfleet a problem because it would have to confront its own immorality if the masked ones were unmasked and the sins put on show for all to see. That would have been a very Trekky way to go, to give these remaining Changelings an outlet, a new lease of life, perhaps if René Auberjonois had been alive when they were making the season they could have had a lovely cameo where he shows up to take the renegades into custody, perhaps even to offer them the rehabilitation of The Great Link, much like the ending to 'Insurrection' where some of Ru'afo's soldiers are allowed home to their own kind again and the hatred and bitter divide is laid aside for the sake of forgiveness and reunification. But modern Trek isn't very interested in those kind of values, never has been, it's much more about the violence and the twisted, and how heroes have to be compromised to beat the villains (see the shortly arriving 'Section 31' streaming film...), entirely antithetical to Trek's former ideals. In the same way as Picard and Crusher were contemplating executing Vadic in the previous episode, there's no sense of dealing with these enemies in any other way than with extreme prejudice. And yet, in keeping with the Data/Lore struggle, I can also point to a shining example of positivity, and bizarrely it comes from Captain Shaw, a character who has not represented that very much at all!

When Seven wants to intervene in the execution scene on the Bridge, Shaw stops her, but it's the line where he says she could have 'blown' the Turbolift, which would have ended the threat, though it would have killed Shaw as well - Starfleet officers don't have the luxury to only do things that feel, in Shaw's words, 'hunky-dory,' and it took me back to that episode of 'TNG' where Crusher has to send Geordi to his death to save the ship in a simulation and at first can't do it. It makes me think Seven is in no ways ready for her own command because she hasn't come to the understanding of what the priority of the moment is, and the hard decisions a Captain must be ready to make. Of course the episode itself isn't necessarily saying that, it's much more concerned with Seven's fierce defence of her 'chosen' identity where she continues to ridiculously assert her Borg designation over, what must be remembered, is her original human identity of Annika Hansen. It's always been this symbol between Captain and First Officer of their mutual incompatibility, and we're meant to side with Seven since it's a thinly veiled support of identity politics, not realising she could easily be considered to be unable to move on from her past (rather like Sisko in 'Emissary'), because she's holding onto something that doesn't exist instead of trying to accept who she really is, and instead it's just a weapon to attack Shaw with. Modern Trek is much more interested in that, but not to the extent they really delve into it because modern Trek is pretty shallow surface level overall!

Shaw going out in the Turbolift could have been a much more dramatic way to go, would have had exactly the horror and shock modern Trek likes to portray, but crucially would have given Seven the lesson in command that would make sense for her to take over as Captain at the end of the season (rather than the weak way Shaw would be dispatched purely to give her the centre seat in the next episode!). Sadly, Starfleet isn't shown to be at its best in this one, mostly through nondescript background characters (the officers rushing madly about on the Titan as they're gunned down, showing only panic and no thought or tactics to prove they belong in Starfleet!), but also in the slightly more developed members of the crew: in the line-up on the Bridge we see Esmar shed a shameful tear in front of Vadic as she walks up and down, prowling for a victim, which showed great weakness in a season where the lesser characters have been treated a lot better than on other recent Treks. And when it comes down to it I never liked the bald, green-faced woman anyway, an example of the kind of ugly alien design we've seen since Michael Westmore no longer had an influence, and while T'Veen was even balder (!), I'd have much preferred Esmar to be the executed example rather than what has been a relatively good example of a Vulcan, but it was meant to be a shock out of the blue, so it's no surprise why they did that.

Mura was the other candidate, chosen as he is to be Jack's avatar to take back control since apparently all consoles on the ship have been locked out to Bridge control except the ones on the Bridge! But to swing back the other way towards positivity, Mura's scene actually showed the qualities of a Starfleet officer: Vadic orders him to demand Picard send Jack to her, and he refuses because it isn't the Starfleet thing to do, and more impressively he's also a Father himself which suddenly gives the scene so much more weight as you can read into it that he wouldn't put Picard in that situation knowing what it would be like were the positions reversed. It could only have been better if Sidney had been among those in the line-up and you think she's going to be killed, since she's the most fleshed out of them all. I'll give them the solution Jack comes up with, too, even if it is a bit of a techy gimmick: we just happen to have a device that can provide a portable forcefield around a couple of people, which the baddies assume is an explosive device, so he was using a bit of blunt Poker face guile to fool them, though even there Seven almost messes things up by unnecessarily staying behind when the others are herded into the Briefing Room - and what happened to the Changelings in there with them? They could have been executed, since surely they had guards in there or they might be able to do something to get themselves out! And what about the Changelings throughout the ship that had been chasing people down? Yes, Vadic's dealt with (I'm guessing the fact she was experimented on was why she froze up in space when we know normal Changelings can survive quite comfortably out there), a relief to be rid of her, but there are other Changelings on the ship, so how were they dealt with?!

There's another rather large plot-hole: Geordi unplugs Data so Lore can't access the Titan's systems any more. But why did it take him so long to come to that course of action? It was all there to provide tension when Jack and Sidney are trapped previously, and an excuse to show off Jack's 'cool' powers of possession, which I'm still not sure make any sense! You could still be forgiven for guessing he's going to turn out to be a Pah-Wraith since they talk about something inside him, something old, etc, though it's all misdirection, except when you know, the light comes on when Vadic says it's fitting Seven is there for the reveal, since she's obviously Borg. But back to Geordi's brainwave of disconnecting Data - it doesn't make any difference anyway as Vadic now has control, and while it is all rather obvious when they build up to needing an advanced computer to be able to crack Vadic's control, it was still fun that it all comes back to Data, I just wished they'd had Picard say something like 'I know someone who can...' And so we come to the best of the episode: Data. He's not the only shining moment, there are pleasant scenes between Riker and Deanna, and the same reiterating their deep friendship between Geordi and Data at the end (something he never got to express due to Data's untimely demise in 'Nemesis'), and of course the wonderful, if overly delayed coming together of all the 'TNG' characters in one room (noticeably alone, as if the other characters created for this series aren't really that important, but I have to agree with that implied sentiment!), almost worth all the bad to get to.

It was a great idea to have Data surrender to his errant brother, and in so doing bring him into the light, Data's own memories and personalities overwhelming the evil represented by Lore. And it was all so Data in its approach, not some feat of speed, agility and violence as when they first faced off in 'Datalore' way back in Season 1 'TNG': moderate, thoughtful, yet also a shrewd cunning that defeats Lore's focused self-interest because he can't see beyond it, and all so expertly carried off so you think Data's time is over, Lore taking Data piece by piece, one memory at a time, when in fact surrender led to victory, even the way Data says it was perfect, soothing Lore's triumphant bitterness by saying that he had nothing while Data had everything. It's a terrific turnaround which almost overcame the problems of the episode. It's not achieved quite without Trekferences, but I'm not one of those people that hates connection to previous Treks, especially when its done in such a wonderful way: we get little cameos from two characters (you could almost say the only other characters that haven't featured in the season, though Dr. Pulaski and Wesley Crusher could certainly have been included), in the holo-recording of Tasha Yar (I don't remember it well enough to know if this is the exact same image, hands on hips, that was seen in 'TNG,' or whether they recreated it, but the clear multisided shape it's projected from certainly looked familiar), so Denise Crosby wasn't exactly wrong when she indicated she'd appear, or did she indicate she wouldn't, I don't recall, but it was important she had some recognition, especially as Data himself kept her memory alive for viewers throughout 'TNG.' And Spot the cat was the other one, not seen since 'Nemesis'!

Oh, but once again I do have to sound a negative knell because I loved the concept and potential for Data to have multiple personalities in one body, so that on occasion Lore or B4, Lal or Dr. Soong (one or more of them, who knows!), could rear their heads in a given moment. That's of course if we were ever going to see more of the character, which seems increasingly unlikely at this point, Season 3 essentially peak old Trek, maximum Trek, or Treximum shall we say! I'd have loved to see another season or more with Data, Geordi and the rest, and if we ever did get more (even a spinoff streaming film), they could still pull out any of those personalities with a bit of technobabble, so I'm not really complaining. It even suggests new ground for Data to cover since he now feels the rigours of old age thanks to this new body (which was never adequately explained, but who cares, we got Brent Spiner playing Data again, the rest is custard), and can commiserate with the aged Picard and all the others who have passed through the fire of time in which we burn. It also makes him less tragic because he hasn't stayed the same while all his friends have become old and degenerated, and there remains so much potential for this band, this happy group, though that remained to be seen at this point with two episodes left in which anyone could be sacrificed on the altar of shock twists (thankfully not, to spoil the 'surprise').

There were some little side digs that I wondered about: firstly, when Vadic implies the Captain's Chair is cosy and she's going to take it with her this could be a reference to the times the Chair was stolen from the set of at least a couple of the 'TNG' films, which I took as a fun, knowing in-joke. And when Lore says something about Data scanning through his 'meaningless memorabilia' I couldn't help but take that as a nudge at many of the fans who love to collect Trek stuff, though in Data's case he willingly gives it all up (to be human?). I felt there was a problem when Geordi states that Data's ethical subroutines don't permit him to take a life, any life, referring to battling Lore, but then I thought of the end of 'The Most Toys' when Data has his Phaser trained on Kivas Fajo with the strong suggestion he was about to execute the man, so I'm not sure it's quite as cut and dried as Geordi makes out, although it is refreshing to be reminded of a time when life was held to be so important Starfleet characters would do their best not to take life wherever possible, even if it inconvenienced them, which is completely at odds with the modern Treks where they vaporise enemies all the time without a second thought: case in point, why did they blast the Shrike to bits (reminding me of the end of 'Star Trek XI' and Nero's ship)? It was a threat, but with their leader gone maybe the Titan could have taken it over, and it'd have been far more use as a source of information on what was going on than the vague, unspoken questions within Jack Crusher's mind about his role and identity. Not to mention it was the last resting place of Jean-Luc's biological remains, which we see one last time before Worf, Raffi, Riker and Troi escape. Not that Picard's body was needed, but it was almost like when Data got blown up within the Scimitar in 'Nemesis,' his remains were vaporised.

That's a question: did Picard know that his body had been kept somewhere by Starfleet? Did he give his authorisation? Why would they keep it, surely it deserved a decent burial, even if the consciousness of the man had been transferred to a positronic form (which once again they felt they had to incorporate, though it really has no bearing on Picard's existence - the only intrigue was that part of his brain was taken out, though it must have been beamed out since his head looked entirely intact!). The Shrike doesn't feature much throughout the season, mainly showing the Bridge, so at least we got to see more of it here, and the chamber where Picard's body was kept felt quite solemn, like an actual burial chamber, even if Picard is really still alive, so there was a strangeness there more than anything else in the season. The scene with Riker and Deanna coming together was a highlight, it's so real, even if I didn't exactly buy all that was said. I'm generally in favour of the retconning of the previous seasons since so much of them was bad, but I felt it a shame to make out that the Riker-Troi's actually hated living on Nepenthe, since the episode of the same name in Season 1 was actually one of the better parts. It was sad to learn they were both living a falsehood then, and I'm sure Kestra (whom I was glad to hear mentioned), didn't feel that way and it would have been a joy to grow up there. It seemed so idyllic, but then you remember Deanna was a bit angry when Picard visited so maybe that's evidence she was harbouring conflicted feelings.

The scene did at least make more sense of how she and Riker could have come to the point where he had to leave for a while, and it tied it neatly into Deanna's Betazoid heritage, that she had numbed his pain, which (like Kirk in 'Star Trek V'), he'd been holding onto and she'd taken that away, but as she saw it, helped to shoulder the burden. I suppose it makes a statement about consent and choice, and that Riker needed to get through it rather than the quick fix she thought she was providing. Once again, the timing doesn't seem to make any sense whatsoever, since Thaddeus was born decades ago and it took this long for Riker to get through all that? It's a bit like the stuff with Dr. Crusher casting off all her old friends and colleagues for twenty years because Jean-Luc might put her son in danger, it made little sense and was really only a plot convenience, but it could have been worse, they could have killed her off and said that's why we never saw or heard of her again. There is one scene that had no backlash or any bad feeling in it whatsoever, and that was Geordi expressing his friendship to Data, and vice versa, as that was the final healing plaster over the top of the open wound of not just 'Nemesis,' but the ill-judged choice to euthanise the mental remains of Data at the end of Season 1 - they have to get their seal of approval on that, unfortunately, by Data saying that version of him is resting peacefully, but it also shows that he isn't human, that he can be copied, but more importantly he's started a new chapter of life which holds promise and if there was never any more of Data in Trek, allows him to be left in a state in which we can imagine him living on as Data always did: exploring, experimenting, learning, and living life as we all do, perhaps even appreciating it more now that he's experienced a kind of death.

That would be a nice place to leave this review, with a kind of hopeful optimism that was once inherent to Trek, but is now a rarity, or a blind, unfounded hope, but like the episode itself isn't the end of the season, and there's still the big two-part finale (and we know how good they are at finishing out serialised seasons...), I still have a few nits to pick: I come back to Raffi, once again misused because she really has no point in the season, other than as a conduit to bring Worf in. We could just as easily have seen the big Klingon doing all the investigating alone in the former episodes, but Raffi has to be there for some reason, and her 'big moment' has to be there for the sake of stupidity - Changelings, we can take them out with just a bit of elbow grease and a couple of long knives, 'cos that's what Trek's all about, isn't it? So she strides down a corridor and easily makes mincemeat out of these faceless goons who we were supposed to feel sympathy for since Starfleet experimented on them (or was it Section 31, but either way...), but were never given any dimension, indeed were deliberately portrayed as mindless heavies. If it'd been Jem'Hadar I could get behind it, and they'd have been only too pleased to have a puny human woman come at them with bladed weapons because they lived for battle. But it just sums up the uselessness of both the Changelings themselves, and the pointlessness of Raffi, too! Mindless action scene just for the sake of it when really it would have been better to make more time for the thoughtful scenes, like Data and just about anyone else. But sure, Raffi fights with knives: go to town.

It also irked me when (and this is a very tiny, minor moment to complain about), the guy Jack takes over says something in his thoughts about needing to regroup with his squad. I mean, when has Starfleet operated in squads, it's not the army! The white-haired alien girl who looks too much like a Changeling is seen in the best view we've had as she's standing in the line-up on the Bridge (I wonder if in thirty years' time they'll do a 'Trials and Tribble-ations' and have the characters of whatever Trek series is running then go back in time and stand in that line: "I lied to Captain Vadic!" Probably not, because judging by this modern generation of Trek the concept is on its last legs and I'm not sure how much longer it can last!), and you can tell better she's not one. Was it always the case that Betazoids couldn't read Changelings? And if so, wasn't that because they don't have a conventional brain, the same as certain other races can't be read due to their brains, whereas these different Changelings would have a physical brain since they have other organs? Not a nitpick, just a question to ponder. At least there was no 20th Century music to kick off the episode, post-title (and no sign of the ever-present bar set!), although we did have the wearying foghorn sound effect instead, which is almost as bad. I loved hearing Jack mentioning The Great Link as it really is cool to hear characters talk of things that were so integral to the days when Trek was great, though that's going to lead me to end on the bad and so saying, underline the point of my review that the episode couldn't fight the bad parts and win: Vadic's last line is another one of those entirely out of place 'cool' bits where she swears, "[bleeeep] Solids," and we're supposed to laugh, while the episode for the most part wasn't too offensive in language and content, it just shows how low the quality bar is when it comes to what is acceptable, though it's of course by no means limited to Trek and is yet another sign of it trying its best to appeal to the lowest common denominator against its better nature. Thus does it fall, thus does it fail, but it had its moments, this episode, it just ain't Data (but what is).

**

Dominion

 DVD, Picard S3 (Dominion)

From the relative heights of the previous episode to the depths of this one, although even the depths are relative - we still have scenes with Geordi talking to Data (and Lore), or Picard and Dr. Crusher, but good scenes are thin on the ground as there's a massive shift towards the weaker characters of the piece, and for every bit of good news (Raffi's not in it), there's bad (it's also Worf-less). Unquestionably one of the weaker episodes as we go back to some of the bad decisions of the season, and 'Picard' in general, that remind you the state of Trek underneath the glossy euphoria of our 'TNG' cast back together is not a healthy one. For one thing, most of them aren't, here - no Worf, only a momentary Changeling mockery to represent Riker, and it's sad to realise Troi only has three episodes of anything substantial since she doesn't appear here and her previous glimpses were fleeting. It is still lovely to see Data and how effortlessly Brent Spiner can switch between the two personas of he and Lore, but even in that side of the story it's much simplified, with the nuance and potential of his mixed brain excised by the kind of primitive 20th Century medical equipment we're meant to believe Starfleet used to experiment on Changelings - we're told there are four personas in Data's hybrid body, which is ignoring any connection to Lal they suggested in the previous episode, while also explaining that B4 and Altan Soong are only memory files, so it takes away a lot of the fascination to simplify things down to just good and bad sides with Data and Lore.

It was a relief that the good stuff between Lore and Data each seeking dominance of the joint mind (or not, as we'd see), was not in this episode because I was really hoping it wouldn't be wasted in such a weak story and kept wondering throughout if there was still time to fit it in. Fortunately, this is one of the shortest episodes of the season at just under forty-six and a half minutes (makes you realise how much they were able to pack in during the old forty-five-minutes-and-less days), but I was surprised how many things in it were a big step backward after so many instances of this getting Trek back on track. But it seems the whiff of past 'Picard' can't be fully expunged even with the joint 'TNG' cast's presence. And it began so well, too, with a surprise cameo from Tim Russ as Tuvok, now apparently (and rightly!), a Captain as can be observed from the four pips on his collar. This is exactly the kind of thing I want to see: a chance for these great Berman-era characters to reappear, and not just from 'TNG,' but 'DS9' and 'Voyager,' too. We never got anyone from 'DS9,' and sadly, Tuvok is only a minor blip who isn't even Tuvok himself, so it's another of those cruel moments, viewers left wondering if a favourite character has been done away with offscreen for no reason other than to provide a shock dramatic twist. At least Tuvok's wellbeing is eventually confirmed later in the season, and the Changeling posing as the Vulcan lets slip he's still alive since he says he'll regret it after they'd finished with him, but it's once again telling that Trek's most Vulcan of Vulcans (the first main character to be a full member of that race, don't forget), is smiling evilly before long.

Russ' performance is still recognisably Tuvok with none of the emotion so many Vulcan performers exhibit. Maybe the ears stick out a bit too much, and he really does look old, but on the whole it was a pleasure to see him play the character again, even though it was a facsimile and a bit of a disappointment we couldn't add Tuvok to the growing cast and see him alongside such greats as Worf or Riker (actually we did see him and Riker together when he was whisked into the Delta Quadrant by Q for 'Death Wish'), but this isn't the first time he'd played an alternate version of the character on another series since he had the distinction of appearing as Mirror Tuvok in a cameo of the second 'DS9' Mirror Universe episode, 'Through The Looking Glass' (the best MU story of all), not to mention appearing in both 'TNG' and 'Generations' as other characters so he has a long connection even to these actors! So Tuvok does have past connections with Trek outside his parent series, however obliquely, and it's a good move to continue that - he was also my favourite 'Voyager' character! It's also not the first time he's reprised the role post-'Voyager' as he was involved in fan films for a while, I think even spearheading one, so it's good to see that wasn't 'held against him' as there did seem to be some animosity between Paramount or CBS at the time, and independent productions using Trek characters and names. From a story perspective it made sense Seven should be talking to him, trying to get in touch with past allies, and they even throw in yet another reference to Admiral Janeway whom it's claimed is involved in preparations for Frontier Day, though another disappointment we'd never get to see her.

Seven is quickly able to expose the Changeling for what he is, since knowledge is one thing they can't replicate if they don't have it. Even there it was a bit of a weird one where she lists his mistakes, saying a Vulcan would never go where there were anti-Kolinahr demonstrations, but I'm not sure any Vulcan would shy away from debating such things, and just who would be holding such demonstrations if not a subset of Vulcans themselves since why would anyone care? It's a discipline for removing all remaining emotion for complete logic, a personal thing, so people being opposed to such an idea didn't sound very realistic at all! She also says her neural pattern was stabilised on Voyager, rather than where she said it was, and by Tuvok himself, which I assume is a reference to a specific episode, possibly Season 5's 'Infinite Regress' where multiple past personalities from her Borg implants were taking over (one of Jeri Ryan's greatest performances). And lastly, the key fact that unmasks the traitor is that only the real Tuvok would know they played Kal-toh together, so he must know what's happened to him! Except that didn't make any sense because she'd just said they played it - the trick should've been when this Tuvok says she often beat him and she said it was a card game, when it's not a multiplayer game, it's one person trying to arrange metal sticks into a pattern: a puzzle, not a card game! So that was all a bit confusing (maybe they were thinking of Kadis-kot, a boardgame for two players?). Russ only gets Special Guest Star billing in the 'end' credits, as opposed to the main ones, so were they toying with the idea of the main credits coming early in the episodes and didn't want to ruin the surprise, or was it simply he only had a small role so couldn't be placed with the main stars?

According to Geordi, he's responsible for finding places to hide the Titan from pursuing Starfleet vessels, claiming, short of junkyards, he's running out of these, but it was a great 'DS9' reference to have them squatting in the Chin'toka Scrapyards, site of important battles in the Dominion War, and makes sense there would still be a big debris field there. What doesn't make sense to me is later on when they're trying to lure the Shrike in by playing dead after a battle with a Vulcan ship. Huh? Presumably they didn't really fight this vessel, so what was it doing floating in 'Open Space' as the onscreen title claims? That was bizarre, and it was disappointing we weren't afforded a good look at it since it's rare, if ever, that we've seen a specifically Vulcan ship in later centuries of the 24th or 25th kind. Even worse, one of Vadic's Changeling lackeys calls it a Vulcan warship - now this could be the context of their point of view, that any and all opposition races' ships were considered warships, but it seemed awfully specific and not in keeping with the Vulcan way. I know they retconned in 'DSC' that a 'Vulcan Hello' means to come in all guns blazing in response to their Klingon first contact, and ruthless logic makes some kind of sense there, but would they still have vessels built for war all this time later? Even the recording didn't sound very Vulcan to me, but perhaps I misunderstood and that was meant to be the Titan's, or even if it wasn't, they might have mocked it up to sell the story. But why would this Vulcan ship have remained unclaimed, left to float in space, it doesn't seem efficient or security-conscious?

They were able to tie in the two stories reasonably well in that experimenting to try and help Data regain control leads to Lore having access to the ship's systems at a critical moment (Spiner deliciously nasty as the errant android), which then leads to Vadic and her minions easily subduing the Bridge (where'd all those guys come from and what were they doing when their Captain was captured?), but everything about this plan was nonsensical! They managed to squeeze in another 'Star Trek II' Trekference with her lifesigns scanner beeping like the one in the film, but it couldn't distract from the silly premise. I understand they can't keep running and they want to lure in their pursuers to capture them in a reverse cat-and-mouse setup, but the plan was poorly executed: we'll have Jack and Sidney run down some corridors, then use the age-old tactic (admittedly, nice to see harking back to the old days with that), of dropping forcefields to trap the invaders. And of course the plan would've originally been to beam the pair out, but due to Lore they were prevented. But why fiddle about with Data at all at this crucial juncture even if he may know more about the enemy's plot, they know how dangerous Lore is and that he keeps getting control so it seemed the height of stupidity to be taking any risks with ship's systems like they did? Of course they couldn't have foreseen it, but it makes Geordi look a little shortsighted - I suppose we can say he was still suffering from the shock of having his best friend back, desperate to help him, and it was certainly a nice scene when he tells Data/Lore what Data's death did to him, which he didn't fully express in 'Nemesis,' but even so!

The trouble with Jack is that he's a bit of a fantasy character, like he's strayed out of a superhero film, what with his apparent telepathic abilities (has he always had that or are they just manifesting themselves now?), reading Sidney's thoughts, to full-on taking control of her to fight her Changeling assailant, not to mention the continued blackouts, or 'red-outs' when his eyes blaze fire and he becomes SuperJack - even then he appears to have trouble dealing with the one Changeling in the corridor this time (the first time one of them spoke English), though ultimately doesn't hesitate to reduce him to ashes by Phaser. What is it with lethal use of Phasers, do they not believe in incapacitation any more? Then there're the usual Phaser bullets pounding away that always get my goat, another of those reminders of the legacy of the series' other seasons. And 'DSC.' And the Kelvin films... It was pretty good when Jack reveals his marionette power, acting out the moves Sidney needs to do to win her battle, but even that's been done before in Trek, and in a much cooler, more technological way rather than through mysterious fantasy powers: Worf controlled Quark's Bat'leth fight to win the heart of a Klingon woman, much to his disapproval, but 'Looking For Par'Mach In All The Wrong Places' had far more character, drama and stakes than this episode. Jack's statement that he likes a good fight when it's fair or when he's the one cheating, just about sums up why he's so irritating, and far from the many heroic, principled Trek characters we've known and loved. Clearly he's designed to appeal to a younger crowd who don't value fair play and good morals, and while his heart's in the right place he just keeps coming off as a rogue, the kind modern Trek prefers (unless they're superheroes with unfailing success and unerring judgement, like Michael Burnham!). He also has a short memory: feeling guilty about Riker's abduction, he claims he was good to him from the first moment, forgetting the elbow to the face when they first met! When he asks Picard if he's felt what it's like to know people are dying for you I expected him to recount his experiences of 'The Best of Both Worlds,' but he didn't. At least he's showing conscience, even if it still comes across as a bit self-absorbed.

Captain Shaw doesn't have enough time to be irritating, his main crime being that his idea of Phaser fighting is to run down the centre of the corridor firing as he goes, rather than taking cover! No wonder he has a chip on his shoulder when he comes up against great Captains or former Captains! He also has the distinction of being injured and flung onto the deck of the Bridge again, so is it another trip to Sickbay to patch him up? The character that really brings the episode down is Vadic: she's back to the forefront with all her musical line delivery and tottering madness. In some ways she's not so bad as she was earlier in the season, since things are getting out of her control, being threatened by 'The Face' who gives her her instructions, and feeling the tick of time running out. We get the Big Reveal this time on her and her cronies' motivation and it's a terrible destruction of Trek's Utopian ideals, or I should say yet another one! Now they're saying, or she is, that Starfleet refused to give the Changelings the cure to the virus that was killing them, claiming they had to steal it, but that's patently untrue since Bashir went into Sloan's head to recover the formula and Odo transferred it to the Link! She then recounts how she and others of her kind, her 'family,' were kept as prisoners of war aboard Daystrom Station and experimented on! We see images of syringes, bunsen burners and other outdated instruments of medical torture, perpetrated by lab-coat scientists happily whistling while they work, with the squeak of trolleys on castor wheels... I mean where do they come up with this stuff, why would Starfleet be using such ancient devices, it's ridiculous!

We're meant to feel some sympathy for her, but it's just a load of incoherent horror-infused creepiness. It's possible Starfleet weren't actually experimenting, or that they were, but didn't realise what they were doing (except it seems fairly cleat it was a specific plan called Project Proteus, all very comic book), rather like Dr. Mora Pol when he was trying to ascertain what kind of being Odo was, and whether he was sentient. Except Starfleet wouldn't have had that excuse because they knew a lot about Changelings by that point (couldn't we have seen a shot of James Sloyan advising them, is he still alive? Actually, I'm glad they didn't do that and ruin another great character). This was the perfect time to pin it on evil Section 31 being responsible for such heinous acts, but it seems the makers of modern Trek always want to make out that Starfleet, at base, is just as bad as any other group, worse when you realise they spout all this positive philosophy and are actually committing acts of atrocity! And what was all that about Starfleet voting not to give the Changelings the cure? Starfleet is the space fleet of the Federation, not some autonomous decision-making force by itself. If they'd said the Federation Council had voted that would have made some sense, though I don't believe they'd have refused to do that, going against all that it stands for. That was the whole point, that was how the war ended, they promised the cure, so to go back on their word would show the Federation no better than the Changelings who started it in the first place! They could easily have explained a lot of this away by Vadic misunderstanding the intentions, but instead this episode as a whole does a major disservice to the season, and while I found it interesting the first time round, this time I see how awful its messages are.

Supposedly Starfleet were turning Vadic and these others into spies to be used against other races, presumably after the war. Starfleet doesn't sneak around, that was always a key message of Trek, and while 'DS9' got the cool cloaking device for the Defiant it was more of a useful tool for the time, they didn't then retrofit the Romulan technology to fit the entire fleet, even during the worst battles of the Dominion War where it would've been advantageous to do so. To suggest they would manipulate a race of people like this is absolutely disgusting and turns Trek on its head! It doesn't even make any sense since how can you control a former enemy so effectively as to force them to infiltrate other enemies, the Changelings wouldn't have gone along with it. And what good are spies that can be tracked! After all that, Beverly discovers a way to track them due to what was done to them meaning there was something detectable in their DNA, so once that got out they'd be pretty useless spies, wouldn't they! The whole concept is just so badly written, and then, as if to put the icing on top, we have Beverly and Picard standing in front of Vadic's forcefield debating whether they should execute her on the spot! It's flabbergasting, did the writers not know what they were doing? Did they ever even watch Trek before? Are they really that debased of mind that they want to dismantle the whole ethos? The writing is back to old 'Picard'/'DSC' levels with lines like Crusher's melodramatic assertion that the moment they allowed Vadic to board they invited death aboard. It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.

Originally I assumed Picard and Crusher could be overheard by Vadic and knew that so were pulling a ruse to make her believe they were going to kill her only for the reveal to be... But no, it was left in a distressing, unpalatable state. Crusher admits she's compromised because of the love of her son and the need to protect him above all other concerns, and even says she's thinking of breaking her Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. It's just awful, and Patrick Stewart has none of the power he used to have, so comes across as an old man looking worried and just sort of going along with what she says. It's really quite scary as I can imagine the Picard of old forbidding Beverly from crossing the line, reminding her of her duty and warning her of what it will do to herself. But no, they just summarily decide to kill Vadic in cold blood, no trial, no appeal, it's just simpler and easier to remove her from the equation; to kill. Then when Lore intervenes and powers down the forcefield they quickly try to shoot her as she escapes and that's the only moment in the entire season when I felt even a modicum of sympathy for Vadic, but really only because I didn't want to see two beloved characters compromised by evil. I get the impression they thought this short debate on the ethics of killing was going to evoke memories of what Trek used to be, back when it examined the hard choices and morals encountered on a regular basis, but it's really only lip service, and shocking, too. Beverly even talks about genocide earlier in the episode, as if uncovering the Changelings' weakness and using it against them would be going that far, but it's all very weak stuff.

What a drop in quality, it really was surprising, and I didn't feel quite as strongly when I first saw it, but it's worse in the context of the season as a whole and shows that Trek has gone down a path, turned a corner, however you want to put it, that it will take far more than the addition of old faces to put right. It's a bit depressing because there have been some good things this season, the writing has generally improved and the style is reminiscent of good Trek. Perhaps the only good thing about this episode are the stakes that they could lose Data again, this time forever. Presumably there are no other backup copies of him (there are always backups, they can just 'find' another one in future if they need to!), so all that constitutes Data rests in this current body. It was nice to have Data 'wake up' and still think he's on the Enterprise, and mentions the threat of the Scimitar, with no explanation for those that don't remember what happened in 'Nemesis' - it's back to being part of that exclusive Trek club for those who have bothered to watch and keep track of everything, which made Trek so appealing in the past. Shame we have to be reminded of more recent events, like Picard saying Data asked him to set him free (years ago, apparently, but I thought this was supposed to be only two years later, which I suppose would make his statement factually correct, two years being 'years,' but isn't a natural way to put it!), the horrible euthanasia moment of Season 1. And as for the Shrike (back to foghorn announcements of its coming - ugh!), why would it just hang there while its Captain was captive, did they not have a contingency plan in case it was a trap, as suspected? There's such a horror theme to the episode with the imagery and the 'music' which sounds like a kettle coming to the boil, and even the great, reassuring theme is replaced for the end credits! Maybe the filming production itself was infiltrated by Changelings or Changeling sympathisers to give us such a twisted, miserable entry in the season?

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