TREK REVIEW: DIS 5-1 & 5-2

5-1: RED DIRECTIVE 
5.2: UNDER THE TWIN MOONS

(SPOILERS WITHIN)

After two years, Star Trek: Discovery returns with its fifth and final season. We'd been promised something special with this run, with the showrunners intending to deliver something that even the naysayers of this divisive series would enjoy, and that was before it was decided it wouldn't be renewed. The double-episode season opener delivered on that promise, giving us a pair of episodes equally rich in action, mystery and heart.

"Red Directive" starts with an almost absurdly action-packed teaser that sees Burnham surfing on the hull of a starship, before jumping back to the events that lead up to this. I'm not sure Trek has done this before; it reminds me of classic episodes of The Outer Limits. It's a fun introduction, but borders on being too much; hasn't every season Discovery season opener had Burnham in freefall in space somehow? In a way, it's comforting: for all the promise of this being season doing something different, it's still full of OTT action setpieces, and Michael still has to place herself right in the centre of the action.

It isn't long before we learn of the Red Directive itself, seemingly 32nd century Starfleet's highest priority order, put in place for when it's absolutely imperative something doesn't fall into enemy hands. It was open knowledge that this season was going to have a quest element that revolved around some galactic mystery. However, I don't think anyone expected for it to act as a sequel to a sixth season episode of The Next Generation that'snow over thirty years old. "The Chase," while designed as a way to silence critics who couldn't suspend disbelief at a galaxy full of human-shaped aliens, was a fun episode that hinted at deep mysteries of the Star Trek universe. Sure, the science was wonky, but when isn't it on Trek? We already knew that no one writing for the franchise understands how evolution works.

It's a story that, in retrospect, is begging for further exploration. If anything, the chase across the galaxy was a bit lacklustre in the 24th century, and this longer, more action-packed version is far more entertaining. On the other hand, the original version had the Progenitors hiding clues in our very DNA; this time, they've scattered bits of a stone jigsaw puzzle across the galaxy, which isn't quite as fun from a sci-fi perspective. Still, it allows for lots of Indiana Jones-esque gallivanting across the place, exploring ruins and colourful locations and getting into scrapes. 

This means new planets - two in two episodes! Sometimes it feels like this series forgets what its name is. Q'Mau is a classic desert world with a hint of the Tatooine to it, while Lyrek, the world with the twin moons, is a proper, Republic Serial jungle adventure location, with haunted ruins and killer mechanisms, albeit a bit more on the high-tech side. Lyrek calls back to The Next Generation as well: while it mostly recalls the weaponry showground of Minos from season one's "The Arsenal of Freedom," it's actually a tombworld of the long-dead Promellians, whose abandoned ship caused trouble for the Enterprise in season three's "Booby Trap." It's a fun detail that the Romulan ship that kicks all this off is almost as old in the Discovery era as the Promellian ship was in The Next Generation.

There's plenty more callbacks but, unlike in Picard's final season, none of feels gratuitous. It all adds to the sense of a rich universe, full of history. Making an obscure, one-off Romulan character one of the greatest scientists in the universe is a nice touch, as is washing up a classic Romulan starship. There's also Fred, the delightful Soong-type android - sorry, synth - who's been knocking around since at least the 26th century. It's nice to see Data's family is still going strong in the far future (and we're bound to see more of Fred, just as soon as Culber and Stamets get him fixed up).

Which isn't too say there isn't plenty of new material here. Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis are great fun as dastardly duo Moll and L'ak, whose simple money-motivated approach makes for a nice contrast to the high-minded ideals of science and learning of the Federation team. Of course, Moll turns out to be Book's long-lost sort-of-stepsister, because everyone knows everyone in this universe, but this offers some promise for future tension, especally if she has links to the now-lost planet Kwejian. 

The other major new character, Callum Rennie's Captain Rayner, is a joy to watch. We may have lost our hero Shaw, but we get new grumpy, bullish officer to enjoy. However, Rayner is quite the opposite in command style, taking risks and considering the mission ahead of individual lives. We can only ask what other skeletons are in the closet if his poor decisions on Q'Mau were enough to get him forced into retirement, especially considering the sorts of breaches of protocol that Burnham, Tilly and the rest get up to on the reg. Of course, it's all an excuse to get him in place as Burnham's new Number One, in the most most predictable move of the two episodes (and one that makes a mockery of any kind of disciplinary system Starfleet has going on here). It's an interesting choice to make Rayner a Kellerun; so far, it's had no bearing on the story, but it's always gratifying when a one-off species isn't completely forgotten about. (The Kelleruns were one of two warring people's seen in the second season DS9 episode "Armegeddon Game," the one where O'Brien does take coffee in the afternoon.)

The regulars and semi-regulars are all well-served. Doug Jones in particular gets some choice material, getting some heartfelt moments with both Burnham and his now fiance T'Rina, and some very fun stuff as "Action Saru" down on Lyrek. It's always good to see Tilly back, absolutely not setting up her new role as a lead on upcoming spin-off Starfleet Academy, no-sirree (and don't ask Mary Wiseman, whatever you do). Oded Fehr and David Cronenberg get to play to their strengths as Admiral Vance and Dr. Kovich, the latter who seems to have his own personal version of the Matrix on hand for super-secret mission briefings. 

Experience tells us that Discovery has a tendency to start a season well, before floundering in the middle and rushing the ending. Still, I remain optimistic that the final season will continue to deliver. A shorter, ten-episode season will hopefully fix some of the pacing issues that have affected the series in the past, and with another four pieces of the puzzle to find, more than half of the run should be taken up with missions to mysterious planets. Next stop: Trill.

Questions, references, observations:

• No one has any idea what L'ak's species is, and I can't help but wonder if that will be significant to the story later.
• We're convinced that President Rillak, with her mixed heritage, will somehow be instrumental to decoding whatever miraculous technology is finally recovered from the Progenitors.
• They've shelved the Spore Drive, much to Stamets's chargrin, in favour of the still mysterious Pathfinder Drive. Probably for the best: has everyone forgotten that they're not supposed to use the spore drive because it hurts the people on the mycelial plane?
• Starship watch: Rayner commands the USS Antares, another well-worn Starfleet name.
• Picard callback: the Romulan puzzlebox that kicks off the quest also had a role in that show's first season mystery.
• Why does Moll think that a Romulan ship would be beyond the Federation's jurisdiction? The Romulans are members now, since Ni'var rejoined.
• The sands of Q'Mau have "unknown radiative properties." That's got to come into play somehow later. I hope no one has space cancer.
• Three cheers for everyone's favourite future knick-knacks, the self-sealing stem bolts!

TREK REVIEW - Lower Decks 4-9 & 4-10

4-9 - "The Inner Fight" 

Getting back to these reviews to finish off the season after being sidelined by various sf anniversaries, and we have what might be the most satisfying finale for Lower Decks in terms of character work. The penultimate episode gives Mariner the focus she's needed all season, dumping her on a brutal planet and forcing her to confront the reasons behind her self-sabotage. It's indicative of the way the writing on this show has grwon, in that the character's motivation was initially presented as being nothing more complex than trying to avoid hard work while sticking it to her mum. Building on the gradual revelations about her background, Mariner's motivations make perfect sense, while incorporating some surprisingly deep Trek lore.

Lower Decks has been particularly heavily indebted to The Next Generation from the beginning, taking its name and basic concept from a seventh season episode. It feels right that Mariner's trauma calls back to this, with the unexpected, but perfectly plausible, revelation that she was friends with Sito Jaxa at the Academy. Sito's death during the episode "Lower Decks," was one of TNG's most powerful character deaths, even though it was entirely off screen. Hearing that her friend's commitment to the mission and her own advancement led to her, presumably brutal, death at the hands of her people's conquerors has weighted heavily on Mariner's mind for years (it's not entirely clear what year this season is set in, but it's no less than ten years since the event, possibly as much as fourteen). 

Piled on top of this is the added trauma of the Dominion War, which we already knew Mariner fought in. It's satisfying to see the ongoing Trek universe finally explore the fallout from the war, here and in Picard's last season. It makes sense that Starfleet has been recruiting hard and pushing promotion in order to build up ranks again following the losses of the war, and just as plausible that someone like Mariner would do everything she could to avoid being put in the position where she'd be giving orders that could result in her friends' and colleagues' deaths. It also ties in nicely to the series' occasional looks at Starfleet's clear status as a military organisation, even while it's desperate to paint itself as something else entirely.

While that's the main point of the episode, around it we get to have a lot of fun. We follow up on what happened to the crews of the alien ships that were attacked and stolen, finding them living as a rag-bag bunch of survivors on a dangerous planet. It's also about time Ma'ah (aka Mach, Magh, depending on your subtitles) arrived into the main narrative, and it's great that he and Mariner bond. As the most truly honourable of Klingons, he was the right person to force her to face up to her demons.

Meanwhile, the Cerritos crew are on the trail of Nick Locarno, as a potential target of the alien ship which is now seemingly targeting ex-Starfleet officers. New Axton is, of course, just Tatooine under a different name, but it's fun to have a bit of Star Wars in our Star Trek now and again, and the sheer number of familiar Trek aliens milling around the place made it feel like home. Of course, the reveal that Locarno was behind the whole thing ties it all together, setting up the finale beautifully.

Observations:

• It's not clear how old Mariner is. If she was at the Academy alongside Sito and Locarno, she's got to be at least thirty (again, it depends on exactly when this is set). In any case, she's presumably a fair bit older than her fellow Lower Deckers.
• The best reference on New Axton is the alien Freeman mistakes for a puppet, who is of course based on the puppet version of Balok from TOS: "The Corbmite Maneouvre." Perhaps he's a member of the species the puppet was based on? Maybe he's even from the First Federation. (Or see the novel The Face of the Unknown.)
• Other than Locarno, the ex-Starfleet officers on the watchlist include Seven of Nine, Beverly Crusher and Thomas Riker. We already knew the first two dropped out of Starfleet some time after Nemesis, but this is the first we've heard of Riker's duplicate since he was imprisoned by the Cardassians in DS9: "The Defiant." For all we knew before, he died in the war.

4-10 - "Old Friends, New Planets"

The whole season is brought together in the finale, tying up the storyline of the mysterious starship - the Nova One - and its crew of merry mutineers. It's far beyond time that Nick Locarno's story was followed up on; after all, he was meant to be on Voyager, but the showrunners bottled it and created Tom Paris, who's basically the same character but watered down.

I love the idea of someone expelled from Starfleet who then goes off the deep end, seeing themselves as the hard done by party. His fleet of ships, crewed by an autonomous collective of disenfranchised extraterrestrials is a great idea, even if their actual plan - to hole themselves up behind a forcefield for god knows how long - doesn't really make sense. But then, should it make sense? The fact that none of them have really thought this through is surely part of the point, and doesn't reduce the damage they can do in the mean time.

There are some lovely voice cameos in this epiosde. Of course, we knew Robert Duncan McNeill would be in it after last episode - with the characters naturally commenting on the likeness shared between his two characters - but it was a fun surprise to hear not only Wil Wheaton, but also Shannon Fill, returning to acting after some time to play Sito once again. The flashback to the Academy helped tie everything up, as well as showing us a version of Mariner who was more enthusiastic and greener aorund the gills than the one we know now.

The resolution to the problem took on all sorts of twists and turns, from the Mark Twain Manoeuvre to the trip to Orion. While I doubt we'll be missing Tendi for long, I hope there's at least some time in season five for the main characters to deal with her absence, and perhaps to see how she does sharing power with D'Erika on the homeworld. Bringing in T'Lyn as the fifth member of the team over the course of the season makes particular sense now, as she's poised to take Tendi's place as the science enthusiast, so it'll be interesting to see how things go when Tendi eventually comes back.

The inclusion of the Genesis Device was a bit of a surprise, although it was kind of telegraphed by the very Wrath of Khan-esque music and effects throughout the episode (the one departure from the TNG-fest this has been). If there are any complaints, it's that Maah and the other alien captains were left out of the loop, when it really felt like it should be part of the solution. Still, these are only half-hour episodes, and there's only so much they can do in the time. It's not like they're not ludicrously packed as it is.

So, altogether, a brilliant end to the season, once more shaking things up for the next round.

Observations:

• It's a bit mad that all Mariner needs to commandeer a ship is her mother's codes. Couldn't they have dropped a line in about her voice pattern or DNA being similar enough to fool the security system?
• The USS Passaro is named for Fabio Passaro, a CGI artist on the franchise, who passed away last year.

New Ferengi Rules of Acquisition: 

•     91: Your boss is only worth what he pays you.
•     289: Shoot first, count profits later. 

There were only 285 rules in the TNG-DS9-VOY era of the 2370s, so there's clearly been some expansion in the last few years.

TREK REVIEW: DIS 3-7 - "Unification III"

This was the episode I was most excited about when the titles were announced. "Unification" and "Unification II" made up a major two-part episode of The Next Generation, bringing Spock into the series and beginning his (and by extension, Picard's) involvement in Romulan society and the beginnings of reunification between Vulcan and Romulus. It was almost inevitable that Vulcan and Romulus would be united in the far future, especially after Romulus itself was destroyed. I was also looking to the inevitable scene when Michael found out what her brother got up to after she left him, and the look of shock when she found out what a legend he was didn't disappoint. 

There's a few moments that take the biscuit when it comes to believability. With the knowledge that the Federation has lost most of its members, wouldn't Saru and Burnham have looked up the situation and seen who was still involved? Equally, I can't believe that no one thought to mention the SB-19 experiment and how Vulcan was convinced it was the cause of the Burn. I know that Starfleet have dismissed the idea, but surely it was worth pointing out to the woman who had made it her personal mission to solve the crisis? 

Still, accepting all this, I love some of the details. Of course, Saru and Burnham aren't aware that the Romulans and Vulcans are related, and still distrust the Romulans. I love that Burnham is convinced that the Romulans are the ones who forced the Vulcans to leave the Federation, when actually it was their idea. All of this ties back to TNG, where we first encountered not only the reunification movement but also Vulcan separatists. It's not all blatant stuff like a clip of Spock from "Reunification II" and Michael's mum turning up (more on that in a minute); all the elements of the episode act to tie disparate parts of the franchise together, in a remarkably fluid and non-fanwanky way.

The journey to Ni'Var, the planet formerly known as Vulcan, is an exciting prospect, so it's tremendously disappointing that we never set foot there and this is left as a bottle episode set on Discovery itself. We get to see different factions of Romulans, Vulcans, and Romulo-Vulcans (mixed race people, I guess) at the logical talk-off the t'kal-in-tet, but there's never a real sense of place. Bringing in the Qowat Milat, the truth-speaking ninja space nuns from Star Trek: Picard, is another nice touch. 

Again, it stretches belief when, not only are the Vulcans impressed that Burnham is there (how the hell do they even know who she is? I know she's the most important person in the galaxy but that was meant to be kept on the downlow), but her mum is now part of the Qowat Milat. It leads to a very nice scene where Mama Burnham uses her powers of absolute candour to put Michael on the spot and actually admit what's driving her these days, but it's still an absolutely ridiculous coincidence. Then again, adventure fiction is full of such contrivances.

The other major element of the episode is Tilly being made Acting First Officer, which is also absurd but works dramatically. Of course it has to be Tilly, who is the heart of the series and the crew. It's ridiculous in realistic terms, since she's the lowest ranking member of the crew, but then, we do know that Saru is a big fan of Captain Pike (he did promote Kirk to Acting First Officer in the other timeline, and that was straight from cadet). It's silly, but it works in terms of the series, although I would like it if Admiral Vance has a word or two with Saru. 

There has been some comment that, for all the talk of exploring a bold new future, there's been a lot of time spent on reworking the franchise's familiar elements. We've seen 32nd century Earth, Trill, the Andorians and Orions, and now the Vulcans and Romulans, so this is a fair criticism, but there's good reason to explore how the major elements of Star Trek's "present" have changed over the centuries. After this, we've only really got the Klingons to go as a major culture to explore (although there's mileage in the Ferengi, Cardassians, Borg and Dominion as well), but it's important to the overall story. Nonetheless, after 900 years, having a minor or completely unknown race in a major position of power would be more satisfying. 

Regardless, Vulcan's future is an essential part of the Star Trek story. As long as you can accept the absurd level of contrivance, this is a satisfying episode, even though very little actually happens in it. It fills in another vital element of the new future, with a powerful emotional story along the way.

Observations:

The name Ni'Var is an astonishingly deep cut bit of fanlore. News to me but a really clever callback. It had previously been used as a Vulcan ship name on Enterprise as well. 

With this episode, the Romulans join the Vulcans as one of only two alien races to appear in every Star Trek series (unless you count Short Treks as a series, in which case the Romulans and Klingons are joint with a series each to go).

No one mentions the Romulan supernova, nor that Spock tried to stop it (and is presumably recorded as having died in the nova). Even on Picard no one mentioned Spock's involvement in the supernova crisis; presumably there's a rights issue regarding the material from the reboot films.

Why were the Vulcans experimenting with a dilithium replacement when the Romulans have been using quantum singularity technology for centuries?

If the t'kal-in-tet has been used since the time of Surak, that puts it at around 2800 years old.

There's a moment when Tilly points out space is three-dimensional. Characters in Trek seem to need reminding of this surprisingly often.

It's impossible to use a microscopically small time variance to triangulate events when dealing with astronomical distances. Time isn't constant, and over light years the variance could be enormous. But then, if we think along those lines, warp travel causes all kinds of problems of causality.

After the USS Nog two episodes ago, this week we hear of the USS Yelchin, named for the late Anton Yelchin. My emotions can only take so much.

Other starships mentioned include the USS Giacconi, presumably named for Riccardo Giacconi the astrophysicist, and the Gav'nor, which sounds likes a Klingon ship (or possibly cockney). 

CAPTAIN'S BLOG: TNG 2-10 - 2-11

2-10) The Dauphin
or
Oooh, Wesley in Love

The Mission: Transport a princess from her inhospitable safe world to her equally inhospitable homeworld.

Planets visited: Klavdia 3 and Daled 4: Two planets with almost identical atmospheres. They don't look very pleasant from orbit, and we don't see the surfaces. Daled 4 has at least one inhabited moon (where Anya is from), and the planet is the homeworld of the allasomorphs. The planet completes one revolution per orbit, so it is permanently locked with one side in day and the other in night. The two sides have been at war for their entire recorded history. Salia's parents come from different sides of Daled 4, and so she is destined to reunite the two factions.

This isn't a planet. It's a picture of a planet.

Alien life forms:

Allasomorphs: Shapeshifting beings whose natural form is a sort of glowing white ribbon of energy. Both Anya and Salia are allasomorphs, capable of shifting their molecular structure into that of other life forms. They've both taken human form for the voyage, Salia as a beautiful young woman, her protector Anya as a nasty old bag. Behind closed doors Anya turns into a serious fitty when she's trying to reassure Salia, then a sort of teddy bear thing that's probably supposed to be cute but is frankly terrifying. In sickbay, Anya decides she has to kill a contagious crewman and turns into a huge hairy beast, more than capable of overpowering Worf. She's a cocky bitch and thinks she's far more powerful than anyone on board (they could just beam her into space). When she threatens Wesley, Salia turns into an even bigger monster.

Shut Up, Wesley: It's a Wes episode. He falls head over heels in love with Salia the moment he sees her (I guess that's why they call him Crusher). In fairness, she's a beautiful girl who's into magnets, so she's a science nerd's wet dream. Wes gets so distracted he forgets to go to work, and spends his time asking various staff members for love advice. He then loiters outside her quarters until she comes out.

Amazingly, he manages to get somewhere with her. He woos her with chocolate, because while she's an alien, she's still a girl and girl's love chocolate, right? It helps that he's a total choco hipster snob. He takes her to see planets and asteroid belts on the holodeck, and continues to see her even after Anya and Picard both warn him off, but he treats her like shit when he realises that the pretty girl he's been snogging isn't her real form. He comes round in the end though.

The Picard Manoeuvre: 

Number One: Riker gives Wesley a crash course in romance, which consists of a series of nauseating lines that make him seem like a complete creep. He tries them out on Guinan, though, and she's totally into it. No wonder she got married twenty-three times.

Son of Mogh: His advice to Wesley is terrifying, but there's a hint that he's taking the piss. He begins by screaming at him, before suggesting that women throw stuff and claw at you, while men recite poetry and duck.

He's emasculated by Anya's ass-wipping of him, but develops huge respect for her and hopes to meet her again, to fight on the same side. (He should have looked her up during the Dominion War, she would've been handy then.) He says "the body is just a shell," and that you shouldn't be fooled by someone's appearance.

In Therapy: Troi can sense that the aliens are hiding something, and that their emotions don't match their outward appearances, but that's about as useful as she gets in this episode.

Stellar Cartography: By this time, only 19% of the galaxy has been charted. On the planet Thalos 7, they age cocoa beans for four hundred years.

Sexy Trek: Wil Wheaton got his first screen kiss here from Jaime Hubbard, who's ten years older than him. Good for him.

Space Bilge:  Riker says of Klavdia 3: "How could anyone exist in an environment so totally hostile to human life?" apparently forgetting that they're ferrying aliens. The crew also express surprise at how similar the atmospheres are between the two planets, which is surely the point. It wouldn't be much use sending Salia to a safehouse on a planet where she can't breathe.

Why does Picard continually open channels to Salia's quarters and then ask if he can turn the viewer on? Is he trying to catch her in the nip?

Everyone is stunned to meet a shapeshifter, who have apparently only been rumoured before, but even restricting to episodes broadcast before this Starfleet has documented shapeshifters including Vendorians, Excalbians and Antosians, and the Enterprise crew have met Q, for crying out loud.

The Verdict: Given that it's a Wesley episode, and Wesley romance at that, this episode isn't bad. In fact it's rather sweet. Still, anyone who thinks Wesley's life is wild and fascinating really has had a sheltered upbringing, and it can't be that hard to impress someone who's never tasted chocolate before.

TREK REVIEW: Picard 1-9 &1-10 - "Et in Arcadia Ego"

SPOILERS from the beginning!

TREK REVIEW: Picard 1-8 - Broken Pieces

With only three episodes left to tie things up, Picard's writers deliver an instalment heavy on exposition and low on incident. Surprisingly, though, this approach works well, resulting in an episode that manages to be pacey and entertaining in spite of very little actually happening.

The now-traditional flashback sequence that opens the episode reveals a great deal about the series' backstory, resolving quite a bit of mystery in one go. Oh – who it turns out is half-Vulcan, half-Romulan, which solves that one – assembles a bunch of Romulan women on the abandoned planet Aia, in the midst of the impossible star system the Eightfold Stars. Here, they receive a vision from 200,000 years ago, of a plague of AIs destroying the galaxy. Most of the women go nuts and kill themselves, except Narissa Rizzo, who seems pretty fine, and her aunt Ramdha, who goes nuts but doesn't immediately shoot herself in the head.

It's very entertaining, if not remotely plausible. I just find it impossible to believe that an ancient video of planets blowing up would be enough to make anyone bash their own head in with a rock. At least Rizzo, who's already clearly miserable as hell, isn't affected. That's what you need in an apocalypse: depressed people. We always feel like the world is doomed, so we're used to it and can just carry on.

Still, I love the idea that Ramdha isn't traumatised by her assimilation, as we suspected, but was already so damaged by what she saw that she essentially crashed the Cube and switched off all the drones.

This episode is strung together from coincidences and unlikely events. Elnor calls Seven, and there she is, just like that (although I love that big hug he gives her). They do have some pretty good chemistry together, much as Elnor and Hugh had, and it's a real shame we don't get any interaction between Hugh and Seven in this series, especially as it's implied they have already met. Seven's decision to plug herself into the cube is completely mad, but is the most exciting part of the episode, and her temporary role as the cube's new Queen provides some fantastic imagery. It puts Seven in a hard position too, making her a Borg again and turning the XB's back into drones in order to defeat the Romulans.

It turns out that Rios's dark past, by a massive coincidence, is linked to the coming of the Ais. Commodore Oh ordered his captain to murder to synths, one of whom as the dead ringer of Soji, and Rios covered it up out of fear for his crew's safety. Raffi then goes off on one about how all her conspiracy theories were true, even though she seemingly had no access to any of this information until now. Did she just happen to guess it all? To be honest, having the attack on Mars be a Romulan plot rather than the synths actually fighting for their rights is a lot less interesting.

Nonetheless, as ridiculous as this all is, it still works in a solidly entertaining way, and it's satisfying to get some answers at last. The highlight of the episode, other than Seven's Borgery, is the conference between Raffi and all the emergency holograms. We've got holograms for engineering, navigation, tactical, hospitality and medical, all played by Santiago Cabrera putting ona different accent and personality, all of which make up elements of Rios's own psyche and memory. It's a brilliant concept and a wonderful scene. I said years ago we should have a Star Trek series made up entirely of holograms running a ship. I just imagined they'd be played by Robert Picardo.

Jurati's meeting with Soji is beautifully played, although it has to be said, Agnes has gotten off very lightly after her part-time job as an assassin. She says she'll hand herself in, but that blatantly won't happen. Picard saves the episode emotionally, though, with a nice speech about how the future is theirs to make. They've two whole episodes left to make it.

Thoughts and observations:

Rios's captain, Vandemeer, was previously first officer to Marta Batanides, who was Picard's bzzie mate/love interest back at the Academy, as seen on TNG: “Tapestry.” Picard's first assignment was the USS Reliant (named for the ship in The Wrath of Khan, and previously mentioned in the extended version of TNG: “The Measure of a Man”).

I'm half-convinced that the reason Picard doesn't have a French accent is that he was replaced by a hologram years ago, and this one was set to English.

The ENH mentions Nu Scorpii as a rare septenary star system. This is a real star system, about 470 light years away. There's one more such system known, AR Cassiopeiae, about 650 light years away, but there are no known octonary systems known to science.

They really called the “Grief World” Aia? The AI-planet?

Rizzo's right hand Romulan is called Centurion Tarent. Is Michael Chabon channelling Terry Nation?

TREK REVIEW: Picard 1-7 - Nepenthe

“Nepenthe” is an episode split between a gentle, reassuring reunion story and an absolutely brutal thriller. On the one hand, the bulk of the focus is on Picard's reunion with Riker and Troi, on what seems to be an idyllic planet, although even this has some darkness beneath the surface story. It's a chance for the characters to take stock and process the events of the preceding episode, and for Picard and Soji in particular to actually get to know each other after very forcefully being thrown together. On the other side, there are the events on the Artefact, including the vicious, and arguably unnecessary, murder of Hugh, and the strained relation on La Sirena, culminating in Jurati's act of near-suicide. It's equal parts assuasive and unsettling.

As a fan, the return of characters of previous iterations of Star Trek is naturally a highlight of Picard, but there's always a risk this will slide into fanwank and cease working as its own story. Catching up with a middle-aged, retired Riker could easily go this way, but the script utilises him well, providing Picard with the comfort of a friend and a much-needed ally, but also someone who'll confront him on his shit. Troi (or Mrs Troi-Riker, rather) gets to use her counselling skills properly, giving Soji someone to talk through her issues with, although it's her daughter who really gets through to the troubled android.

Lulu Wilson absolutely steals this episode as young Kestra Troi-Riker, which is no mean feat given that she's up against the long-awaited reunion of three of The Next Generation's principle characters. Kestra is a cool, fun, adventurous kid, who has clearly thrown herself into the more back-to-basics life that her parents have taken to on the planet Nepenthe. Their stated reason for settling on the planet is the life-restoring properties of the soil, which they had hoped to use to cure their late son of a degenerative disease. In an unexpected link to the overall series arc, it turns out that a positronic net is part of a treatment that would have cured him, but these were blanket banned after the attack on Mars.

There's more to it, though. The late Thaddeus is revealed to have been something of a prodigy, creating entire languages and worlds in his head as part of his desire to belong somewhere after growing up on a starship. While Kestra is clearly just as brilliant, she has a much more grounded lifestyle, which has to be a conscious decision by her parents. It's not like there isn't a more technology-based lifestyle available on the planet, as we hear of a spaceport numerous times. The Troi-Rikers clearly wanted to move back to nature.

Lulu Wilson also shares excellent chemistry with Isa Briones, who gets to give Soji some real character at last. I guess this makes sense, since before much of her character is explicitly maufactured, and at last she is learning who she really is. Understandably she's in a hell of a place, having had her identity thrown into question, and then minutes later her boyfriend try to kill her, and then escape from a Borg cube through a super-teleporter. As helpful as her time on Nepenthe is in settling her character, she has a lot more to go through before she'll really know who she is and what her place is.

The details of Soji's biology are interesting. “Data didn't have mucus,” points out Kestra, and it does seem strange to put so much work into creating an artificial being that seems so human seems almost counterproductive. Yes, she's super-strong and super-intelligent, but she's also extremely biological with all the weaknesses that entails. She almost choked on poison gas last episode. Why build a human? We can already make humans. Nonetheless, her pedigree as a Soong-type android is so clear that all it takes is a characteristic head tilt and Riker and Troi both recognise her as Data's child.

I'm not sure the events on the Artefact really add anything much to the episode, other than to show how ruthlessly evil Rizzo is. It's not like this is ever in question. The villainous characters, particularly the female ones (ie everyone except Narek) have been pretty one-dimensionally evil in this series, in spite of the more complex moral concepts it's going for. Rizzo leaps at the chance to start murdering XB's to show just how much contempt she holds them in, then kills Hugh for good measure. Rather like the murder of Icheb earlier in the series, it seems pretty cynical. On the plus side, Evan Evagora (Elnor) and Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh) work really nicely together. It's a pity we won't see more of them.

The La Sirena crew work nicely in Picard's absence, with the understandable tension already there racking up constantly. Jurati finally snaps under the strain of what she's done, trying to disable the tracker in her blood. Whether she was deliberately suicidal or her near-death was a side-effect is open to interpretation. Allison Pill is excellent in this episode, which sells her character's torn motivations far better than the pretty unbelievable backstory of her mind meld with Commodore Oh. It isn't clear whether Oh is controlling her mentally, or if what she showed her was enough to turn Jurati against all her principles, but either way it doesn't really convince.

Overall, the events on the eponymous planet make “Nepenthe” a memorable episode, while the other developments, although moving the plot forward more, are far less effective. Still a solid instalment in the series, although the sense that we're running out of time is becoming unavoidable.

Thoughts and Observations:

“Nepenthe” is the name of a liquor from Greek myth that took away painful memories. Today it's used to mean “sweet forgetfulness” but can be translated as “amnesia” or “oblivion.” There's a theme developing here.

Kestra is named after Troi's deceased sister, whose story was explored in TNG: “Dark Page,” while Thaddeus is named for Riker's Civil War era ancestor, mentioned in VOY: “Death Wish.”

Are they softening us up for Picard's death? He's in his nineties, and in this episode they remind us that he has an artificial heart and a neurological condition.

The planet Nepenthe has jackalopes! They make good eating, and Riker puts bunnicorn sausage on his pizzas.

The Kzinti are causing trouble in the space near Nepenthe, the first time we've heard the name on Trek since the Animated Series. (Some people have heard “Xindi,” which would also be cool, but the subtitles confirm it's Kzinti.) Larry Niven gave the writers the nod that it was fine for them to drop the reference. This makes the Kzinti's existence in the Trek universe inarguably canonical.

Riker and Troi rack up a fourth Trek series, having appeared on The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise previously, although they did not appear together on Voyager. Frakes also appeared as Thomas Riker on Deep Space Nine, who is still technically Riker, so maybe that puts him at five.

Riker completely fails to climb over a chair in this episode, and I find this extremely disappointing.

I've mentioned the possible link to Control from Discovery before, but I hope the reuse of shots from that series isn't setting this link up and is just recycling. While it could potentially tie in, reusing the villain at this stage seems lazy.

There's a cock-up in the battle scene on the Artefact, as Hugh appears with Rizzo's knife in his neck before she throws it at him.

The Romulan snakeheads are pretty cool, but they're no Birds-of-Prey.

TREK REVIEW: Picard 1-6 - The Impossible Box

After last week's episode, which featured no scenes aboard the Artefact, this instalment spends almost all its time there, as the two storylines finally meet and Picard's search for Soji reaches its culmination. It's surprising that the series has taken so long to bring the two sets of characters together, with Picard's crew and the Romulan-Borg set-up being kept entirely separate until now. While last week's episode was eventful, little of it actually advanced the plot. This week things really kick into high gear, and while I've enjoyed the more languid pace of this series, it's good to have some forward motion at last.

We've been waiting some time to see Picard return to a Borg cube for the first time since “The Best of Both Worlds,” and this episode does not disappoint. Stewart gives us some of his strongest acting ever in this role – I don't think I've seen him put this much into Picard since the torture scenes in “Chain of Command.” In contrast to his barely suppressed rage when confronting the Borg in First Contact – which was almost a quarter of a century ago – Picard is visibly terrified of the prospect of boarding a cube. There's an absolutely beautiful bit of direction where he reviews the reports of his assimilation, and the image of Locutus overlays Picard's own face. It's a simple yet very powerful image, and pushes home how Picard still bears the internal scars of his assimilation. Once he's actually boards the cube, his terror is overwhelming, and Stewart's performance steps up again, as the XBs surround him and he is momentarily convinced they are moving to attack him.

“They don't change,” says Picard, “they metastasize.” It's an exceptional line, and one that reflects his, and most characters', understandable attitudes to the Collective. Of course, we know that the Borg, or at least individual drones, can change. Seven of Nine's guest role reminds of various rehabilitated drones on Voyager, while Hugh himself makes a far more significant contribution to this episode than in his previous brief appearance. In a heart-warming moment, Picard and Hugh embrace, suggesting they must have had some contact since they last met in “Descent,” where they were respectful of each other but certainly not friends. Hugh has developed significantly as an individual, and has helped other former drones become compassionate beings, even if they don't all show much in the way of individuality. When he speaks to Hugh, though, Picard shows a different attitude: “You're showing what the Borg are underneath. They're victims, not monsters.”

On the other end of the story, the incest twins bring their operation to a close, as Narek finally gets Soji to confront her past. The scene where Soji realises that all her memories are fabricated, and that everything about her dates back only thirty-seven months, is powerful. Isa Briones gives an excellent performance here, and shows that she's very good in the role when she's actually given something interesting to react against. With Narek's help, Soji accesses her only real memories, which have hidden in her dreams, and from this discovers the location of her home planet (although surely there must be more than one planet in the galaxy that could conceivably have a similar sky). He then proceeds to try to gas her to death, which is an especially cruel method of execution considering that he could just blast her. He seems genuinely upset as he walks away, suggesting he has real feelings for Soji, which if anything makes his actions even more disgusting.

He really hasn't thought it through, of course, as all this does is activate Soji, just as Dahj's assassination attempt activated her. We get some great action to lead the episode out, as Picard, Elnor and Hugh battle their way to the Borg Queen's chamber and make an escape through a spatial trajector. Picard saves Soji, for now at least, so his mission has been a success, but he's left Hugh and Elnor, plus everyone on La Sirena, deep in Romulan territory with little hope of escape.

On the whole, Picard doesn't actually come of very well in this episode, for all his bravery. He uses Raffi, who is visibly drunk and distressed, to gain entry to the Artefact, forcing her to utilise and endanger one of her few remaining friendships to ease the channels. His rescue of Soji is perfunctory by necessity, but he does little to put the poor girl at ease after her entire worldview has been upended. One gets the impression of someone for whom the mission is the most important thing, never mind what else gets broken on the way.

(Other) best line: Picard is “so Federation, his face is probably on the damn brochure.”

Sexy Trek: Dr. Jurati and Rios get sexy with each other, and while they both say it's a bad idea, you really can't blame either of them.

Thoughts and observations:

So, the poor old Sikarians from Voyager have been assimilated. The Borg have appropriated spatial trajector technology from them, which handily for the plot allows a quick hop through space, to anywhere up to 40,000 light years away. When Voyager tried to use this technology, they were scuppered by the fact that the planet Sikaris itself was essential to its function, but either the Borg or the Sikarians themselves seem to have overcome this. Quite why the Borg Queen needs an escape route, when she can seemingly survive death, is unclear.

I like the line, “The Romulans are in a 250-year bad mood.” Starfleet first made contact with the Romulans in 2152 on Enterprise, 247 years before this episode.

Hugh is a Federation citizen, which is intriguing. 

The hug between Hugh and Picard was apparently not in the script, but was worked out by Stewart and Del Arco. Which is just lovely.

TREK REVIEW: Picard 1-4 - "Absolute Candor"

After all these years, are we still pretending that Jean-Luc Picard is actually French? Because he is every inch the Englishman abroad in this episode, striding into the relocation camp on Vashti in the prologue flashback in his white suit and broad-brimmed hat. He's got a serious case of white saviour complex in this episode, and in fairness, he has saved a lot of people, but Christ, does he know it.

While the long pilot ostensibly finished last episode, this instalment is another step in the building of the main cast, with Evan Evagora joining as the Romulan space ninja Elnor. He's basically an elf from The Lord of the Rings, isn't he? Evagora does pretty well as a stoic warrior boy from an advanced martial culture, although the Australian accent is slightly odd coming from a Romulan. Then again, in this series we've had English and Irish Romulans, so why not? Why should all the aliens sound American? I want a Brummie Klingon before the season's out, please.

We learn a lot about Romulan culture in this episode, both on Vashti and on the Artefact. We've never really seen much of it beyond the military, the government and Tal Shiar before, so having new elements to explore sets this series apart from earlier Romulan stories. The Qowat Milat are good fun – a group of warrior nuns with a vow of truth and honesty is just a great fantasy idea and nothing like what we've seen from the Romulans before. Elnor must have had one hell of a childhood, though, with all those women being relentlessly honest with him. I can't help but agree with Jurati – the “way of absolute candor” sounds pretty irritating.

Vashti itself is an interesting location. It seems that it was previously a Romulan/Federation cooperative, which is something that could never have existed in the pre-Nemesis period of the 24^th century, and it makes sense that this was a prime location for settling Romulan refugees. It's deteriorated since then, though, and the “Romulans Only” signs seem almost redundant as it looks like all non-Romulan elements have long since pulled out. Some commenters are questioning how poverty can exist in this beautiful future, but frankly, it's pretty clear that neither the Federation for what remains of the Romulan government has the resources to support every planet that needs help. Calling the UFP a post-scarcity society isn't really accurate, but it's certainly on its way to being one, but any society would need a huge infrastructure to keep things functioning. A major crisis – the destruction of Romulus or the attack on Mars – would lead to a huge change in both the availability and distribution of resources. If a colony was let go it would break down very quickly.

It's understandable that there's some bad blood towards the Federation from Romulan refugees, but the characters we meet here are particularly hate-fuelled. The big guy who stands up to Picard seems more pissed off that the Federation offered to help the Romulans in the first place rather than leave them to help themselves. It's a wildly inconsistent attitude, and while that's hardly unusual for someone with a bigoted point of view, it's annoying to see Picard shoulder the blame for that too. Frankly, even together it would have been impossible for the Empire and the Federation to save everyone on Romulus and Remus, but at least Picard's efforts helped save thousands. White saviour complex it might be, but it's gratifying that he'll take none of that shit from the Romulan survivors. He's guilty for not doing more, but he'll never apologise for trying.

Events on the Artefact stretch on, and to be honest they're becoming a little boring. The Incest Twins are becoming irritating in the extreme, and Soji isn't really being afforded much in the way of character. Dajh made more of an impression in her short screen time than her sister has in four episodes, and given that they're played by the same actress, it can only be the writing that's at fault there. It's interesting to learn more about Ramdha, and her insights into Romulan mythology, although the intention seems to be that she is somehow linking Soji with an impending apocalypse. Given that Romulus has been annihilated, you'd think that Romulan Armageddon has rather been and gone.

It's a mostly enjoyable episode, but one whose runtime is overshadowed by its final moments. The La Sirena crew spend a bit too much effort pushing that the pilot of the ship that has saved them from the Bird-of-Prey is a “he,” so it's pretty clear we're going to have the shock reveal they're a woman. Still, it's an effective cliffhanger, even if the reveal does swamp the rest of the episode. But who cares? Seven of Nine's back.

Thoughts: I like that we're explicitly spending some time in the Beta Quadrant, which has been skirted over in most series, even though logically loads of episodes before have to have taken place there, most of Enterprise and Discovery take place there and the USS Voyager, notoriously, should have reached it long before the series ended.

It makes sense that there's a power vacuum since Romulus was destroyed. So far we know that there's a Romulan Free State, possibly residual Romulan Empire, the mysterious Fenris Rangers and sundry petty warlords.

Random thought: what's the status of Nimbus 3 in this period? I can imagine that a lot of Romulan refugees would have made their way there, assuming it's still in neutral territory.

It's a Romulan Bird-of-Prey! Absolute classic starship, how dare Rios insult it?

With Orla Brady, Michelle Hurd and now Jeri Ryan, this series is full of sexy older women. Basically, I want a Trek version of Ocean's 8. (Ooh, my fanfic senses are tingling.)

TREK REVIEW: Picard 1-1: "Remembrance"

The first episode of a series can often be a difficult one to review. There's so much to set up, and little time to explore it all. Most Star Trek series are highly episodic, with the first episode functioning as a self-contained story, even as they set up elements to be continued in later instalments. Star Trek: Picard isn't like that. This is a serial, with episode one being the first chapter in a longer story. As such, we're left with more questions than answers, and the complete serial will no doubt throw "Remembrance" into a different light.

Nonetheless, as an opening chapter, and on its own merits as an hour of television, this is excellent. After years of Trek prequels on the big and small screen, it's wonderful to be looking forward again, even as the story reacts to elements that have gone before. The destruction of Romulus in 2009's Star Trek film was a huge event that was thrown in as background colour, a reason for the villain to be angry and vengeful. The aftermath remained completely unexplored until now. Equally, the previous film, Star Trek Nemesis, set up intriguing new elements regarding the relationship between the Federation and the Romulan Empire, as well as the nature of Data's artificial life. There was so much  that, outside the spin-off fiction, remained frustratingly unexplored.

It feels totally right that Patrick Stewart, one of the most outspoken actors when it comes to politics and human rights, should not only step back to star in the series, but develop the story as well. Stewart has spoken about how his anger at the world has informed this series, and it shows. While not everyone will be happy with another take on an ineffectual Federation and a corrupt Starfleet, at least this time there seems to be a point to it beyond cynical shock value. Once, the idea of a utopian future was enough to make the horrors of real life bearable. Pure escapism isn't enough now. To give us hope, you have to show a world where things are wrong, and show us that they can be put right. It's very hard to believe that our civilisation will ever reach the ideals the Federation is supposed to stand for. Better to address this and show that, while we will continue to make mistakes, we will also continue to learn from them.

Immediately, Picard looks different to other Star Trek productions. This is high-quality, prestige television. It looks more sophisticated even than Discovery, even as it remains, for almost all the first episode, resolutely on terra firma. Such a relief that, after bottling it with Enterprise, the showrunners of Trek have given us a version of the series that can spend some time exploring the Earth. Sometimes, you have to look inward to learn about yourself, even if you don't like what you see.

Stewart, now in his seventies and playing a man in his nineties, in a future that has only grown worse (echoes of Logan), is exceptional. Always the best actor to helm a starship, Stewart gives a mature, subtle and powerful performance as the aged Picard, now retired to his vineyard. His only connections to the wider universe are his two Romulan staff, Laris (the always wonderful Orla Brady) and Zhaban (Jamie McShane), no doubt refugees from the destruction of Romulus. We see a disastrous interview with the Federation News Network, where his desire to help the Romulans is attacked, in what amounts to a horribly xenophobic propaganda piece. Not only does this serve to drive Picard further into isolation, but it provides an uncomfortable reflection of our xenophobic, refugee-hating right wing news organisations in the UK and US.

Starfleet's failure to rescue millions of Romulans is complicated by the fact that the rescue fleet was destroyed by "rogue synths," artificial beings who attacked Mars. We don't know what drove them to do so, or what the extent of artificial life is in this future. Nonetheless, it's another element of today's world, the fear and hatred that both drives and results from terrorism, translated to a new future. Into this comes Dahj (Isa Briones), on the run from Romulan assassins, and somehow linked to Picard via (implanted?) memories.

I'd gone out and said that Dahj was actually Lal, and I was almost right. Picard describes her as Data's daughter, and she seems to be based on a painting of his that he named "Daughter," something which was surely a representation of his late offspring Lal. At present, though, Dahj's existence poses more questions than answers. The suggestion is that she is a flesh-and-blood being with a synthetic brain, perhaps more like a Blade Runner-style replicant than an android. Regardless, she's terrified, confused, and as a synthetic being, an outlawed and hated life form in this more defensive Federation. Although she is extremely capable - the action sequences in which she fights off Romulan agents are impressive - she seeks out a nonagenarian to help protect her, something he is incapable of doing. Still, it at least brings Picard back into the world, and serves to engage him with Starfleet again, and the oft-mentioned and now finally seen Daystrom Institute.

There are shocks to come in the first episode, even so, although Dahj's fate may not be sealed (if she is artificial, perhaps she can be reproduced). She even has a twin, working aboard the Romulan Reclamation Site - the Borg Cube seen in the trailers - presumably just as unware of her own nature as her sister was. The twin theme continues directly from Nemesis, even as we see that Data's brother, B-4, was ultimately a failed experiment.

Where this episode works surprisingly well is in its take on nostalgia. Both hardcore and casual fans are going to come into Picard with a rose-tinted view of The Next Generation, and this episode plays on that, with Brent Spiner back as a dream of Data with whom Picard can interact. The dream sequences show snapshots of the TNG-era, but there's nothing celebratory or self-congratulatory about them. There's a sense of real sadness for what Picard has lost as the universe has moved on without him.

"Remembrance" raises so many questions, regarding the Romulans, synthetic life, and the nature of the Federation in this time, but in itself, is a moving and gripping reintroduction to perhaps the greatest captain Starfleet ever had. It's Stewart's show, and he owns it, and I for one am absolutely hooked already.

Title-Tattle: This is the first major Star Trek series since The Next Generation to not be named for the ship or station that provides its main setting.

Aliens life forms: Dahj's unfortunate boyfriend is a Xahean - one of Po's people from Discovery and Short Treks.

Future history: The exact year of the series' setting isn't exactly clear, but it's suggested to be either very late in the 2390s or the beginning of the 25th century. If it's fourteen years since Picard left Starfleet, and he left as a result of the Hobus supernova in 2387, then it must be 2401 at the earliest.

The atmosphere of Mars has been burning since the attack by rogue synths, as seen in Short Treks 2-6, "Children of Mars," twenty years earlier. (This definitely suggests that the red planet has been terraformed by the 24th century - a carbon dioxide atmosphere wouldn't burn.)

Bruce Maddox is mentioned as the driving force behind the creation of synthetic life at the Daystrom Institute. Maddox appeared in the TNG 2-9, "The Measure of a Man."

Graphics: I like how the Romulan emblem has been tweaked so that it no longer features the two globes in the raptor's claws, reflecting the loss of the twin worlds of Romulus and Remus.

Musical cues: As in the final trailer, the episode features a rendition of "Blue Skies" by Bing Crosby. This was the song Data sang at the Rikers' wedding in Nemesis and had been passed on in his memories to B-4. As an aside, Bing was the grandfather of Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar in the first season on TNG.

There are musical phrases taken from the theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was reworked for the following original cast films and The Next Generation, and the first appearance of the Romulans, TOS 1-8, "Balance of Terror."

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek Boldly Go - Vol. 1

Star Trek: Boldly Go volume 1 collects the first six issues of IDW's new Kelvin timeline series. Although there's no particular reason this series couldn't have simply carried on from the previous ongoing series, Boldly Go specifically continues the story of Kirk and crew after the main events of Star Trek Beyond, leading up to the launch of the new USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A seen at the very end of that movie. In this respect, it's similar to how DC published strips in the 1980s that showed events between The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home, where Kirk took command of the Excelsior. Like this, Boldly Go may find itself contradicted and rendered irrevocably apocryphal if, and when, a fourth Abramsverse movie is released.

Issues 1 - 4

Issue 1 sees Kirk taking temporary command of the USS Endeavour on a year-long mission of exploration. Bones is there too, having taken a role reduction to assistant chief medical officer so that he can continue to serve under his friend, and Chekov is manning engineering and the transporter bay. The remaining core crew have gone in separate directions, which is entirely plausible. Sulu has been promoted to commander and is first officer aboard the USS Concord, while Scotty is lecturing at Starfleet Academy. Meanwhile, Spock and Uhura have taken a sabbatical, in order to assist Sarek with the founding of the new Vulcan Science Academy on New Vulcan.

The first four issues comprise a single story, which sees the Concord encounter an alien threat that Starfleet is unprepared to meet. Although it's delivered as a big shocking cliffhanger, it's no big surprise who the aliens are, but if you have managed to avoid this reveal and want to remain unspoiled, stop reading now. Needless to say, the Concord is carved up by the aggressor, the bulk of its crew captured, including Sulu's husband and daughter, giving him a particularly personal stake in the story. Also captured is the commanding officer of the Concord, Captain Terrell, who, twenty years later in another reality, commands the Reliant on The Wrath of Khan. Terrell, it seems, is not a lucky captain in any timeline.

So, without beating about the bush any further, the aggressors are the Borg, somewhat beefed up but immediately recognisable and reliably insisting that resistance really is rather futile. If anything, it's a surprise that the Borg took so long to turn up in the Kelvin timeline comics; indeed, I wondered if they were being held back for a movie appearance. While it's another example of recycling older ideas for the new timeline, seeing Kirk and crew take on the Borg is irresistible. Spock and Uhura are brought back in in order to analyse the Borg and their language, something that's slightly contrived considering the Borg have never had any trouble making themselves understood before. However, it works, and the story builds in intensity with each chapter, as the Borg make way to Romulus, putting Kirk in a very dangerous position politically. For those wondering why Romulus is high on the Borg's agenda, it has to do with the Narada, and the revelations about its nature that IDW previously established in the Countdown and Nero miniseries.

Although this is a story that relies heavily on established elements, it also introduces one fascinating new character. Commander Valas, first officer of the Endeavour, is a Romulan, raised on Earth by dissidents who fled the Empire. She's an intriguing character, coming across as a more impulsive yet still emotionally restrained officer than Spock, and her presence adds another complication to the interactions with the Star Empire.

Mike Johnson provides a strong, gripping story that promises repurcussions in future issues, and Tony Shasteen's artwork is excellent, with some fine likeness of the actors and dynamic space action. The Borg Sphere looks especially imposing as it carves up ships and outposts in pursuit of its mission. There are some nice character touches – the head of the Vulcan Academy appears to be played by Judi Dench! - although there's one notable slip-up by the colourists that make it appear, at one point, that Spock has red blood. The story also displays the same flaw as the Enterprise episode “Regeneration,” in that, even in this more advanced timeline, it's hard to credit how rapidly an earlier ship is able to take down a Borg vessel.

Issues 5 & 6

Issue 5 continues with the same creative team, but tells a much slighter, although effective story. The issue is given over entirely to the character of Jaylah, currently studying at Starfleet Academy. It's a very dialogue-light story, but uses an unusual storytelling style, playing events in reverse as we explore the alien woman's backstory, on Altamid and before. The story seems a little detached in this volume, but sets up further appearances of Jaylah in future comics.

Issue 6 follows on from the Borg story, with Sulu recovering from the near loss of his family and ready to take on another posting. The Kelvin timeline's version of the Babel Conference is in its planning stages, here involving the Romulans and held in response to the Borg incursion. However, the storyline is mostly a standalone adventure in which the Endeavour encounters a white hole, a previously unverified phenomenon with unknown and unpredictable effects. What follows sees two junior crewmembers acting against the ship for reasons that become clear. It's a brief but effective story that relies on that old Star Trek staple, the godlike alien race who decide to observe a primitive human crew. This issue is written by Ryan Parrott, and has artwork by Chris Mooneyham, who provides a fairly old-fashioned, perhaps classic style of comics art that makes the crew look especially dashing. It's a strong closing story that gives hints to future events in a series that has some considerable promise.

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek: Horizon

The majority of Star Trek fan films are intended to recreate the classic series, either as new adventures of Kirk and Spock  on the USS Enterprise or with newly conceived crews on her sister ships. A few look to recreate other series, though (or even "missing" eras, such as the now aborted Star Trek: Axanar).  Star Trek: Horizon is a new feature length fan production, that, while creating a new ship and crew, works very much as a lost episode of the series Enterprise.

Set in 2160, five years after the conclusion of Enterprise and at the height of the war with the Romulan Empire, Horizon introduces the starship Discovery NX-04 (NX starships traditionally being named after space shuttle orbiters). Commanded by Captain Harrison Hawke (Paul Lang), the Discovery has taken a beating on a mission to collect a Romulan defector (Tamar, played by Callie Bussell), but is soon repaired and rearmed to go on a new mission into disputed space, as part of a fleet of Starfleet and Vulcan ships. Things do not go as expected, with the Discovery pulled through time and space to a distant galaxy, arriving at a planet that is central to a deadly Romulan plot.

Horizon pulls together various elements of Trek lore to create a fan-pleasing but quite inventive storyline. As well as the fabled Romulan War that was never seen on screen, it brings in the Temporal Cold War that ran through Enterprise, with characters originating from various centuries. The Horizon of the title is a superweapon, created by aliens who fought the Iconians tens of thousands of years ago. Relics of the Iconians appeared in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and we get to see a little more of the ancient civilisation here, depicting them rather differently and certainly more benevolently than we'd been led to believe. Events from the new Abrams movie franchise are even alluded to; the film also takes a few stylistic cues from the blockbusters.

The plot is enjoyable and well-paced, with some finely directed action sequences as well as quieter, more emotional moments. I particularly liked that we get to see the senior crew in their off hours, acting like normal people away from the front line and their stations. Horizon was made on a tight budget, and that shows, with a small cast and limited sets, but the effects work is excellent and there are some fine visuals. On the other hand, the film has a low-res, soft focus quality throughout. This may be a stylistic choice, or intended to mask production shortcomings, but it detracts from the end product.

The acting, to be perfectly fair, isn't great. It's not terrible, it's never unwatchable, but it's quite mediocre. The dialogue is quite cliched and stilted, although there is the occasional fun line. It's significantly better in these regards than Star Trek: Renegades, which was made with the involvement of several professionals. Considering the tiny budget and the amateur nature of the production, this is quite the success, and worth your time if you're an Enterprise fan with 100 minutes to spare.

Watch Star Trek Horizon here.

CAPTAIN'S BLOG: TNG 1.25

And so, we finally reach the end of The Next Generation, season one.

1.25) The Neutral Zone

or

'Captain Birdseye's Deep Frozen Humans'

The Mission: Investigate the destruction of starbases along the Romulan Neutral Zone.

Planets visited: None.

Alien life forms: The Romulans. This is the first appearance of the classic villains in TNG, suitably updated for the era. Like the Klingons, they have had a make-up revamp, giving them an enhanced ridged brow . It's not Klingon standard, but it does make them distinct from their Vulcan cousins. They have a fascination with humans, which has apparently kept the peace (the fact that the humans beat them in the old war probably helped).

Starships: The mighty Romulan Warbird makes its first appearance. It's absolutely huge, dwarfing the Enterprise, although the shots here don't really make that clear. It's a clear development from the old Bird-of-Prey, sticking with the aquiline design but making it bolder and more threatening. It's equipped with a powerful cloaking device that the Enterprise sensors cannot penetrate.

The SS Birsdeye (name taken from the script, and nice one, btw), is a cryonics satellite that was launched into Earth orbit back in the late 20^th century. Somehow, it's made its way across dozens of light years to the edge of the Neutral Zone (this is never explained), and is now barely functioning.

Future History: The year is 2364. This is the first time a definitive date is set down for a Star Trek production, from which all other dates in the franchise are calculated.

The last contact with the Romulans was the so-called Tomed Incident, over fifty years before the episode. This means the Romulans have not made contact with the Federation since around twenty years after the end of the TOS movie era. The set-up here parallels that in the TOS episode 'Balance of Terror,' in which Kirk's Enterprise makes contact with the Romulans after a century of isolation, once they start testing Starfleet by destroying starbases. This time, though, it's not the Romulans behind it...

Cryonics was a fad at the end of the twentieth century, when people were terrified of death. Only three people are in any condition to be brought back to life, their illnesses cured by 24^th century techniques. They are housewife Clare Raymond, musician L.Q 'Sonny' Clemonds and tycoon Ralf Offenhouse. It's fair to say they have a little trouble adjusting to the 24^th century. These days, no one knows what a phone call is, there's no money, and television went out of fashion in the 2040s (surely not? At least Doctor Who should make it to its 75^th anniversary.)

The Picard Maneouvre: No one tells Picard that Data beamed the human survivors over. He takes offence when Offenhouse compares the Enterprise to the QE2. He totally rocks when he talks the git down, calmly explaining how his money is worthless and his way of life extinct. He comes back with a good point though – the rich guy survived to live again in the future.

Number One: Has a pretty low opinion of the three resurrectees. Frankly, he's a bit of cocky bitch this episode.

Elementary, My Dear Data: He really doesn't like being called a robot. It's Data's curiosity that creates the whole situation. He requests to beam over to the satellite, and beams the three salvageable patients back without authorisation.

In Therapy: Troi is actually pretty useful this episode, researching what little is known of the Roumulans and helping the time-lost humans adjust to their new lives. She sets up Clare with her great-great-great-great-great-grandson.

Son of Mogh: Despises the Romulans for destroying his home and killing his family on Khitomer. Not a good episode for him, bless.

Trek Stars: Marc Alaimo makes his first (recognisable, after the Antican) Trek appearance as a wonderfully arrogant Romulan commander. He'll be back several times, most notably as Gul Dukat in DS9.

Links: Clare's list of descendants includes not only the first six Doctors Who, but also Miss Piggy and Kermit T. Frog.

Future Echoes: The Terra 9 station and all its partners have been entirely destroyed, scopped from their planets and carried away. The Romulans have experienced similar losses. We don't find it out here, but it was the Borg what done it.

The Verdict: “We are back!” The Romulans return in a pretty quiet fashion that promises a lot more from the future. After a whole season spent skirting around the issue, TNG finally embraces its status as a continuation of the original series. The B-plot of the revived humans makes for a funny mix, but ti works pretty well. We could have done without the comedy music for the funny bits, but they are, at least, a bit funny. Clemonds is great, they should have kept him as their musical mascot.