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?
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