REVIEW: Before the World Ends (Cerys Evans, 2023)

Every now and then, you go to see something entirely new, and are absolutely blown away by it. 

This was the experience by our little group at the debut performance of Before the World Ends, a new science fiction play by Cerys Evans. Performed by Cerys's own Open Handed Theatre Company at The Actors in Brighton, in a tiny and intimate performance space, as part of FemFest 2023, Before the World Ends is a very different creation to Cerys's previous show, A Trans Fairytale. Full disclosure: Cerys is a good friend of mine, but I don't give good reviews to things I don't rate, even when I like the person who wrote them (I just hide and try not to make eye contact and try to think of excuse for next time). I knew Before the World Ends would be good, but I wasn't prepared for just how good.

With a cast of only six, performing nine roles, it's a very tight production, made with minimal set dressing and props, relying on the talents of the actors and some immersive sound and light design to do the script justice. Realising a world through so little visual material is tough, especially when you're setting the entire thing in the future, but the production handles it with ease.

The story is set in two main time zones: 2027 and 3027. Our focus in the further future is Nicola (Sophie Bloor), trying to work her way up the ladder at a museum of ancient history - specifically the 21st century, a time period that just doesn't draw in the crowds anymore. When she discovers an archaic phone that can somehow communicate through time, she is accidentally connected to Barry (Sam Gibbons), living a thousand years earlier and blissfully unaware that his new phone buddy is interested in more than market research.

Nicola can't help but try to learn from Barry. Not the specifics of the events at the close of 2027 - in spite of a spotty historical record, there seems to be no confusion of the important events - but just how people living then could close their eyes to the devastation around them. As Nicola connects with Barry, she comes to question whether the people of the 21st century were really as selfish and blind as they're believed to be, or whether there is something more to it. Surely they can't be all that different?

I hate when sf material is self-consciously justified as being "a drama first," but that's a very apt way to describe this play, which balances the brutality and heartache of mundane life with futuristic speculation. Nicola's personal and professional life could just as easily be taking place today, and while in some science fiction that would be a weakness, here it reinforces the idea that people are just people, doing the best they can wherever and whenever they live. Nicolas has to contend with an abusive partner and an unimpressed boss, all the while trying to balance her new cross-temporal friendship. For his part, Barry has to struggle with an elderly, disabled mother, as well as the unending "one thing after another" of 21st century life that makes the plight of the wider world seem so far away.

The play deals primarily with climate change and collective responsibility, but also touches on domestic violence, bereavement, the ups and downs of technological progress and cultural misunderstandings, and very briefly touches on gender identity. If there's one complaint, it's that in it's ninety minute runtime there isn't room to explore all of these in depth, and the story could be greatly expanded to a full length play or film, or even beyond to a television series. As it stands, though, it's an extremely focused story.

If this all sounds heavy going, then fear not: Before the World Ends is also frequently hilarious. The main events are given context by Patrick McHugh's brilliant museum guide, who gives poignant and often ridiculous notes to 21st century events and artifacts. McHugh is one of the actors playing dual roles, along with Madeleine Hawkey and Aurea Williamson. Plays with limited casts often struggle with this, but here each actor makes their characters completely distinct. Everyone is excellent, of course, but I feel particular praise must go to Bloor and Gibbons in their lead performances, and Sokratis Kyria for his terrifying turn as Nicola's partner. 

As events in 2027 deteriorate around Barry, and the aftereffects are felt in 3027 and even beyond, the story turns bleak. Ultimately, though, it's a hopeful story, showing us how we can make a difference, even if it's only a small one, and that understanding each other is perhaps the most important thing of all.

Sadly, this was a one-off performance for now, but Cerys has plans for future performances. To the future.

REVIEW: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

SPOILERS if you still haven't caught it.

Well, that was certainly very strange. I can fully understand that Quantumania isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I don't get the level of hate thrown at it. It's nonsense, yes, but it's enjoyable, entertaining nonsense, as befits an expansive sci-fi cartoon (more than any other MCU film, this is clearly a cartoon). 

The first Ant-Man was a very clever film that masqueraded as a stupid action flick. Quantumania is a rather stupid film trying hard to appear as a clever one. The plot moves arbitrarily, with some huge illogical elements that aren't quite covered up by the spectacle. It was hard enough to accept that Janet Van Dyne could be picked up from the Quantum Realm with such ease once Scott had been down there, considering that we're talking about what is supposedly a whole universe. It's tiny, yes, but lying within the "main" universe, it's still infinite in extent. In fact, relatively speaking, it should be even bigger to its inhabitants than our universe is to us. Yet everyone who enters it ends up in the same area, where everyone knows each other from some point in their lives either above or below. Even when you accept that MODOK was interfering with Cassie's satellite, this is hard to swallow. The Quantum Realm is microscopic, but it shouldn't be small.

There's also a deeply uneven tone to the film. The Ant-Man films, more so than even the rest of the MCU, have always balanced the over-the-top and comedic with high-stakes drama, but here, the balancing act fails somewhat. The comedy - particularly the later scenes with MODOK - becomes intrusive to the drama. Add this to irrational plotting, and you have a film which can be frustrating to watch.

In spite of those frustrations, Quantumania is tremendous fun. We don't get enough truly weird, visually over-the-top sci-fi these days, and this film just throws us straight in there, showing us a noisy, colourful, baffling universe. There are some brilliantly bizarre choices, not least making the MCU's version of MODOK the twisted remnants of Darren Cross. The comedy isn't on the level of the previous two films - the opening act is easily the funniest, and the comedy never really recovers from jumping to the Quantum Realm - but there are still moments of gold there. That's probably the biggest problem with this film, and why it doesn't reach beyond good fun to something more. Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp worked so well because they juxtaposed the absurd and the mundane, and they were refreshing amongst later MCU films by mostly standing alone. 

Quantumania, for all its joyous embracing of the bizarre, loses this juxtaposition, and by positioning itself as the introduction of the new Big Bad and the fulcrum of Phase Five, there's a lot riding on it. Plus, after the surprise hit of the first Ant-Man and the impressively solid follow-up, the expectations were higher. I guess a weird cartoon alien battlefield doesn't cut it now.

All this serves to distract from the stars, who without exception gives great performances. Paul Rudd remains the adorable everyman of the MCU (albeit the terribly handsome everyman), who grounds the film even in its weirdest moments. Evangeline Lily is a little underused, but continues to make Hope a formidable character, one who could easily carry her own story if given the chance. Kathryn Newton is very likeable as (the third) Cassie Lang, now rather randomly given her own suit to become another size-changing hero (Stature/Stinger/Giant-Woman in the comics), and while she doesn't yet have the presence to carry the adventure herself, she shares great chemistry with Rudd and brings their scenes together to life.

One thing that I really liked about the film was its embracing of an older heroic cast. Aside from Newton, they're all over forty. Lilly is the youngest at 43, and actually looks it, which is a rare privilege for an actress in Hollywood, and while Rudd is forever ageless, he's now 53. Michelle Pfeiffer is 64 and Michael Douglas is pushing eighty, and they both get a solid chunk of the action. Pfeiffer is excellent as Janet Van Dyne, holding her own against the villainous Kang in both present-day and flashback scenes, and Douglas manages to give a classy performance even when delivering lines about hyper-intelligent ants.  Honestly, the original Ant-Man and the Wasp deserve their own film as out-of-retirement superheroes. Pit them against Doctor Nemesis or Egghead. It's a sure-fire winner.

Hats off to Jonathan Majors, who takes on the thankless task of following Josh Brolin's Thanos as the new chief villain. I didn't like his performance as He Who Remains, the alternative variant on Loki, at all, but here he gives an entirely different performance. He embodies the arrogance and frustration of someone utterly convinced he is destined to rule, with a remarkably restrained performance. There were moments when he seemed to be channeling Chiwetel Ejiofor's performance in Serenity: that same resignation to doing what he is certain is right, whatever the unpleasant cost. I'm reassured that Kang will make a great villain for the franchise, although the other variants on the Council of Kangs were all rather broader.

The core cast rightfully dominate their scenes, but there are some nice moments from the expansive supporting cast of peculiar characters. Bill Murray's much-anticipated appearance as Lord Krylar is fun, although he just plays Bill Murray like he always does. David Dastmalchian has a silly cameo voicing Veb the blob, which is a nice touch since there's no room for Kurt or the rest of the X-CON gang here (although Michael Pena is sorely missed as Luis). William Jackson Harper is underused as the telepath Quaz, but is entertaining in the scenes he has, and Katy O'Brien's warrior Jentorra deserves a future appearance. Lovely to see that Jimmy Woo got his dinner with Scott. The decision to include MODOK, played by Corey Stoll as a twisted version of the first film's Darren Cross, is hilarious; it's just a shame that his comedy intrudes on more dramatically important scenes later. (And look, MODOK has always been utterly ridiculous. The last screen version was a cartoon parody starring Patton Oswalt. It's not like he was ever a serious villain.)

I liked how the Quantum Realm was depicted, and how we had a mixture of humanoids, inexplicably alien creatures and almost protozoan organisms all mixing together, giving a truly otherworldly experience. It was satisfying how quantum physics played into the action at crucial moments; given the Multiverse is the central concept for this iteration of the MCU, playing with the Many-Worlds Interpretation is an obvious and effective way to create new problems for the characters. I'd have liked a bit more quantum, though; have characters appear in two places at once, or play with superposition. It's not like any of this really makes sense when applied to people and macroscopic action anyway, so why not go nuts with it?

The final confrontation is where it falls down somewhat. Not because it isn't an effective final battle; the siege of Kang's fortress and his showdown with Lang are both some of the best end-of-the-movie fight scenes we've had. It's just that, with Kang being built up to be the ultimate, multiverse-threatening villain, having Scott and Hope be the ones who kill him seems a bit imbalanced. Of course, we know he's coming back. Whether he was actually crushed by that singularity, or fell down into an even deeper level of reality, we don't know. Equally, it looked like the film was going to end on a powerful cliffhanger, with Scott and Hope marooned in the Quantum Realm. And then they just got out, with the minimum of effort. It massively undercut the final act.

However, let's remember the Many-Worlds Interpretation. If we're talking about a Multiverse-travelling villain, he can surely never be truly defeated, since there will naturally be a version of events where he won. Logically, there should also be a version of events where Scott and Hope won, but remain trapped. Is this how they'll follow up the climactic scenes? Or is that giving them too much credit?

TREK REVIEW; PIC 3-3 - "Seventeen Seconds"

 SPOILERS, naturally.

And suddenly, the season went from being good to bloody great.

Last week I quibbled about wanting to know what's going on, having seen the previous two seasons spend too long getting to the core of the plot and having serious pacing issues because of it. I needn't have worried. Although the events remain stuck in the same places as in the end of episode one - a mysterious, unusual nebula and the seedy streets of M'Talas Prime - they're pushing forward, and while the claustrophobic tension increases, we suddenly learn a lot more about what's going on behind the scenes in the galaxy.

On the Titan, Captain Shaw is incapacitated by Vadic's attack, with the absolute pummeling the ship takes this episode proving him completely right about the folly of getting involved here at the edge of space. Todd Stashwick's performance, combined with some solid writing, have made Shaw move from the nasty character who opposes our heroes to the one we all finding ourselves siding with. He's the only one, somehow, to realise that Vadic must be tracking the Titan somehow, as if the idea they're trailing something is so difficult for all these Starfleet geniuses to come up with. (I don't know, maybe they're all just overconfident.)

Sadly, this pushes Shaw out of the episode, but there's more than enough going on elsewhere. I love that he puts Riker in command, not Picard, in spite of the elder man being the ranking officer. It's clear that, while he doesn't much like the former Titan captain, he can't stand the legendary Jean-Luc Picard, and you can understand why. Last week I mentioned how Jack was very much Picard in his youth, reckless and irresponsible but well-meaning, while Shaw is rather like early-TNG, all duty and by-the-book, not friendly with his crew but garnering their respect. 

Contemporary Picard has come through the other side, being familiar, morally-bound and courageous, but he's come right back through to reckless again. Riker, who has a more recent and keenly felt loss, is more cautious and introspective than we once knew him. Their command roles are switched, just as their personas have changed with time. It's great to see them at each other's throats after so many years being on good terms. We barely got a cross word between them on TNG (thanks to Roddenberry's drama-killing "no human conflict" rule), and you can't help but feel that there's nearly forty years' pent-up resentment between these men, finally coming out.

On the other hand, we have the confrontation between Picard and Crusher, and here it's hard not to feel sympathetic to old JL. It's entirely understandable that Beverly would fear for son's safety as the child of the legendary Picard, especially given how his approach became more gung-ho in the movies and beyond. Plus, let's not forget the one time that he thought he did have a son, because the Ferengi Daimon Bok wanted revenge so badly that he faked a DNA test. If someone did find out that Jack was Picard Jr, he probably would be in danger from certain elements. On the other hand, Beverly has been living an even more dangerous life on the edge of the law with her son, breaking all manner of treaties and seeing him become a wanted man, all by the age of twenty (yes, Ed Speelers is about 34, but that's how the years add up, no two ways about it). Something doesn't quite ring true.

Elsewhere, Raffi and Worf become a wonderful new double-act, with Dorn in particular shining as the older, wryer Klingon. "Beheadings are on Wednesdays" - and they say this guy doesn't have a sense of humour. Dorn has, famously, appeared in more instalments of the Trek franchise than any other actor, all as Worf (except The Undiscovered Country, where he played Worf's grandfather... Worf). He's great, but his long-championed Worf series never sounded particularly appealing, until now. I'd watch these two snipe at each other on undercover missions for hours.

Both storylines finally come together with the revelations that, a) Vadic has the portal gun (obvs), and b) the Changelings are behind the plot. Now, that was a bit of a shock - not because they weren't a possibility (the changing faces line hinted at it), but because there were so many other possibilities, and DS9 so rarely gets any follow-up. We had that one episode of Lower Decks, and the odd little alien cameo or mention, and that was it for the legacy of the best series in Trek canon? (No, I will not take discussion on this.) An updated Changeling effect makes for a visually appealing, and not immediately obvious, reveal, and that it's a breakaway group, acting against the Founders, is intriguing. Of course the Changelings should hate the Federation after how they won the war.

Intriguing, though, is the clear implication that it isn't just the Changelings behind this. Is Vadic a Changeling? No reason why not, as such, but it somehow doesn't feel likely. As an aside, I loved the battle this week, with Amanda Plummer giving a much more subdued, more appealing performance, and the visual spectacle of the portal gun making for something new in space battles at last. (Riker has clearly never played Portal, and it shows.) It's very Wrath of Khan/Mutara Nebula, of course, but a newer, twistier version. Just as Khan couldn't quite grasp that he was in 3D space, not on the sea, Riker and Picard can't quite grasp that they're fighting something that can come from any angle, any time.

We learn, as well, that the portal gun isn't the prize at all, merely a handy bonus that can be used as a distraction. It's pretty clear that the actual aim of the heist was Lore and/or Moriarty, as we've already seen them in the trailers (perhaps keeping them a secret would have worked better?) Daystrom is, after all, known far more for AI than weapons development. I'm beginning to wonder if we're actually seeing a loose alliance of various beings with an axe to grind with the Federation (hey, maybe we will see the Conspiracy bugs after all).

Interestingly, we've seen that Lore and Moriarty will be visibly older, in spite of the de-ageing software used in the prologue for this episode. With Picard now 96 in-universe, it seems that being a synthetic life form doesn't protect one from the ravages of time. There's a definite theme of ageism in this episode, with Dr. Trill dismissing Crusher, then having to eat her words as Beverly effortlessly diagnoses Shaw. On the other hand, Picard and Riker seem to be genuinely out of their depth against this new threat. 

 All of this covered, and not once did we feel bogged down in exposition or that the pacing was lagging. Excellent work.

Random thoughts:

It's genuinely tricky watching this my partner Suzanne, who has an uncanny ability to guess left-field plot twists way ahead of the reveal. So if it turns out that Riker is actually Thomas Riker, and that's why he's so unconfident in command, she got there first.

Worf has taken to drinking chamomile tea. I hope he still drinks prune juice - it keeps you regular.

Thaddeus Troi-Riker, Will and Deanna's late son, was apparently born around 2381, the same year that Jack was conceived.

Thomas Dekker, who played the Changeling on M'Talas, also played young Thomas Picard on Star Trek Generations. He's about the same age as Ed Speelers. Makes me wonder if he auditioned for Jack Crusher.

Beverly agrees with my theory that Jack's accent is genetic... although it's really because he was schooled in London. We've given up any pretense that Picard is meant to sound French, then.

TREK REVIEW: PIC 3-2 - "Disengage"

Yes, SPOILERS.

Not that they'd really spoil anything, to be honest. There were revelations aplenty in this episode, but it's not as if any of them were actually surprising.

Which isn't to say this was bad. This was another solidly entertaining hour of Trek that was heavy on both the character and action. It's just that there was very little that we couldn't have guessed beforehand, or hadn't been outright told to us in the huge promo campaign.

Fortunately, every plays their parts with absolute investment and charisma. Ed Speelers being a case in point. The young Jack Crusher (if that is your real name, sir) is a winning presence, purely on the strength of Speeler's looks and charm. There's any number of ne'er-do-wells with hearts of gold in Trek, and in adventure telly in general, and their success as characters comes down purely to how likeable they are. Speelers makes Jack a character whose adventures I'd want to watch. And yes, there is something a bit Picard-like in him, a bit like the tearaway Jean-Luc once was, and who occasionally breaks out during those more macho adventures. 

So, as beautifully performed the moment between Picard and Beverly Crusher was (a lovely moment of non-verbal acting), it was followed by an announcement that was still played as if it was meant to surprise us. Yes, we know he's your son, JL, we've been battered over the head with it for the last hour.

Equally unsurprising is the reveal of Raffi's handler. While it could have been just about anyone, Worf was by far the most obvious candidate. Still, while it wasn't a surprise, his swashbuckling entrance, lopping baddies apart with his new Klingon sword was awesome. And he actually got to use it as a sword, a benefit of the more lenient standards of streaming television compared to primetime broadcast and syndication (how many bat'leth fights have we seen where they just hit and prod each other with these deadly weapons?) Lots of Romulans on hand helps, of course - green blood doesn't up the rating as much as red.

Michelle Hurd has an especially good episode as Raffi. You have to feel sorry for her, facing her ex-husband and having to choose between her own life and the safety of the galaxy, all the while being slated for her conspiracy-chasing ways. There was a conspiracy, Jay, she helped uncover it! And now she's back with Starfleet to help uncover another one. She's not nuts! Of course, we get the inevitable moment when she finally has to go all in for the part and shoot up again, although there's a fun side to it as she's such a rock-solid addict that Mr Sneed's knock-out party drug hardly affected her.

Sneed is a fun side villain, with a suitably broad performance by Aaron Stanford, and it's a shame he was dispatched so quickly. One odd thing, though - he had very small ears for a Ferengi male. (Suz's immediate thought when we met him - "Well, he hasn't got the lobes for business!") Is he perhaps a trans Ferengi? Or is there some weird fashion for ear reductions in the 25th century? Or is just luck of the draw?

When it comes to villains, Vadic certainly is one. Amanda Plummer gives a tremendously hammy performance, but that fits perfectly with the material she's given, which is firmly in the self aware, monologuing megalomaniac mold. She's not got the Shakespearean class of her father's General Chang, rather a more unhinged, joyfully evil vibe. So far, she's entertaining, but I hope there's a solid reason behind her actions, rather than just plain baddieness.

The Titan situation continues to be interesting. Captain Shaw is definitely growing on me, with this episode showing things more from his point-of-view. The thing is, he's absolutely right: risking 500 lives for the sake of two is the wrong call, no matter how legendary they are, especially after they went and got themselves into trouble. He seems especially risk averse considering the extent of the danger wasn't clear at this point, but that seems to be sloppy writing/editing rather than a deliberate move. It's a bit of a shame that he falls for Seven's hero speech, since he's a more interesting character if he's not a hero, but rather the sort of measured officer that Starfleet needs a lot of if it's going to function. Someone once said that the definition of a hero is "someone who gets other people killed." (Actually, it was Zoe from Serenity). And it's true, he does.

He's in a genuinely difficult situation with Jack and the order from what is clearly a dangerous terrorist to hand him over. The "we don't negotiate" rule by Starfleet is the sort of directive that is easy to respect until you're actually presented with such a situation. To be honest, the humourless, by-the-book Captain Shaw is not unlike the Captain Picard of the earlier TNG seasons, which, given how Jack is very like the young, undisciplined Picard, and the man himself is now working purely by moral principles, illustrates some interesting character progression.

There's a lot of exposition in "Disengage," but, considering how much ground it has to cover and how many introductions it has to make, it's a swift, easy watch. However, it's already feeling like we should be getting a few answers to what's driving events here.

Random thoughts:

• The Eleos XII is described as a Mariposa medical vessel, which suggests it is (or has been previously) working for an organisation that descended from Cristobal and Teresa's 21st century crisis organisation.
• The shuttle Picard and Riker stole is called Saavik, after the Vulcan officer who served on the Enterprise in Treks II and III. Presumably, this was a homage to Kirstie Alley, the original Saavik actor, who died recently.
• Among many, many other weapons, including "technology unknown" (so the portal gun), the Shrike has isolytic burst warheads, which are illegal under the Khitomer Accords.
• Sneed isn't a fan of Section 31 either. Remember when they were supposed to be a secret organisation?
• "I believe it is afternoon in the Sol system." Does Vadic not understand anything about how time zones work? It's not even afternoon all at the same time on Earth, let alone through the whole system. 
• I didn't mention much of the rest of the Titan crew last week, but they're a colourful bunch, including a bald-headed Vulcan (who might be part-Deltan according to BtS gossip), a Bajoran helmsman and an alien comms officer, apparently a Haliian. Ensign Sidney La Forge is the only one who gets any real attention though, and she's a lot of fun, the one bridge officer who's allowed to be a bit flippant in the presence of Shaw. It helps that Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut is gorgeous, in spite of her silly name.
• Picard and Riker both forget they have transport inhibitors set on the Eleos XII, which almost dooms them. It was a busy moment with a lot going on, but are they getting just a bit too absent-minded in their old age?
• Fun line: "She threw a ship at us!"
  

TREK REVIEW: PIC 3-1 - "The Next Generation"

So, Star Trek: Picard is back for its third and final series (unless, you know, they end up doing another after all). I really want to review these as they come, so I will try to get an episode reviewed each week, but I remain ridiculously busy with real life, so there might be the odd delay. On that note, while I did review the first season of Strange New Worlds for Television Heaven, I wasn't able to write individual episode reviews. However, I plan to follow this up by reviving the old Captain's Blog, which should rather suit the more stand-alone episodes of SNW. 

Anyway... SPOILERS ahead.

So, Picard. "The Next Generation" was a solid and entertaining season opener that promises a lot, although it lacked the wham-bam excitement of last year's opener, "The Star Gazer." There seems to be a distinct disconnect between seasons of Picard, and there's some frustration here as we pick up, apparently not long after the end of season two, with no mention of the near-cataclysm at the end of the episode, the creation of a mysterious and gigantic transwarp conduit, or the unlikely alliance of the Federation and the new, improved Borg. Of course, this might all be dealt with later in the season, but I'm not holding my breath.

However, at least we do follow up on Picard's relationship with lovely Laris, who seem to have settled into a nice, respectfully teasing partnership. Give us a proper kiss though. TV needs more older couples really showing affection. The theme of the season seems set up to be relationships, be they romantic, familial, friendly or working. Riker and Picard rub along together beautifully, two old men who've left behind their rather formal working friendship for something closer. Picard is rueful when it comes to his near-romance with Beverley Crusher, although it clearly came to something, considering that this new Crusher Jr. is almost certainly his unknown son. (Did they have a quickie after Nemesis then think better of it? Maybe it was the naked Betazoid wedding that did it.)

Seven, now a commander in Starfleet, is torn between her loyalty to Picard (and, off screen, Janeway, who also championed her to join the fleet) and her commitment to Captain Shaw. We've rarely seen struggle to hold back her emotions like this, so Starfleet life is really getting to her. She doesn't seem to be with Raffi anymore, who is herself missing her family (presumably the hologram she looks at longingly is her granddaughter, as her estranged son and his wife were expecting back in season one). And we know there are a lot of characters still to come with long and storied histories together.

It's an odd about-face for the series, which was explicitly not going to be a TNG reunion when it was first announced. Picard hasn't really managed to find its own identity, thanks to two very different seasons so far, and reworking itself as the Enterprise crew's last adventure together will do little to change this. The series has gone whole-heartedly into nostalgia mode, at least in this episode, from the retro-design of the new Titan and it's Star Trek III styled exit from Spacedock, to the various musical cues taken from earlier series and films. But it's hard to complain, when this is all done with such clear love of the franchise and in such an enjoyable way. (I was particularly pleased to hear the First Contact theme play over the closing credits.)

There are plenty of new elements, though. The aforementioned Captain Shaw is an interesting character, one who we're clearly meant to take against immediately but who isn't actually in the wrong as such. Obstructive he might be, but he's right when he refuses to let two retired officers take his ship on a joy ride against his standing orders. His antagonism towards both Picard and Seven seems to stem from bad experiences with the Borg, and that can't be unusual in Starfleet. (Although, what does "former ex-Borg" mean? That makes no sense.) I suspect he's going to turn out to be a good guy, just one who's also a bit of a prick, especially when it comes to, what is essentially, deadnaming Seven.

Raffi's story also promises to be interesting. I'm glad that her apparent fall off the wagon is just a cover, but it's very clear that she's skirting very close to the edge, and it's refreshing to see character development played out like this on Trek, which historically hasn't liked to make its main characters so flawed and fragile. Her mission, to stop a terrorist attack with a seriously heavy weapon of mass destruction, is a failure, but so frustratingly close. The idea of a a quantum tunnelling weapon is interesting, although what we actually see is nothing of the sort, more a giant portal gun. Presumably it was developed as a transport device before someone realised it could be used to smash cities up.

Dr. Crusher's storyline is certainly intriguing, with her seemingly acting as a civilian medic, but one on the very edges of known space and in a very dangerous situation. It's touching that she relies on Picard as the one person she can trust, although her code is a bit maddening since he had absolutely no way of guessing it - unless it was all a way of getting the gang back together, but that's still very contrived. We have a group of assailants who seem to be wearing masks, and whose faces are allegedly different every time, which suggests they might be a group we'd recognise.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable opening episode, and one that leaves plenty of questions for the future.

Random Thoughts:

• It occurs to me that we don't know how old Laris is. Given Romulan/Vulcan lifespans, she might well be older than Picard.
• The crummy planet M'Talas Prime is named for showrunner Terry Matalas, but actually goes back to Enterprise, when it was first mentioned as a cheeky tribute to the then-PA.
• New ships: the SS Eleos, Dr. Crusher's medical ship, named for the Greek goddess of mercy; and the USS Titan NCC-80102-A, a Constitution III-class, or Neo-Constitution.
• The Titan has been broken down to its very core and rebuilt from scratch as an entirely new class of ship, which stretches the meaning of "refit" to breaking point.
• Raffi is working for Starfleet Intelligence... here's hoping it's not actually Section 31 again.
• The alien aggressors have very mean-looking ships, that bring to mind any number of antagonistic races' fleets.
• With all the talk of "trust no one" and "don't involve Starfleet," I'm really hoping we've finally got a follow-up to the alien parasites from TNG "Conspiracy." But probably not.
• Captain Rachel Garrett's statue is the "Red Lady" linked to the attack, which makes me wonder if the timeline from TNG "Yesterday's Enterprise" is somehow involved. It would suggest a way to bring Denise Crosby back. It's probably just a reference, though, not a clue.
• I though Riker was an admiral in season one. Apparently he's still a captain.
• Frontier Day is supposedly the 250th anniversary of Starfleet, but since this is around 2401, that doesn't fit. Matalas has confirmed it's actually the anniversary of the Enterprise NX-01's launch, which was the beginning of Starfleet's deep space explorations.
• The dedication for Annie Wersching, who died so unexpectedly last month, was touching.