Star Trek: Picard (aka ST:P)

[Gary]

I am fairly certain all of the Weyoun clones were destroyed.

[RJDiogenes]

I believe they said so, yeah. But the writers could easily come up with a way to find a new one. Of course, this could also be wishful thinking on my part, because I'd really love to see Jeffrey Combs again.

[RJDiogenes]

And I almost forgot: New episode in the morning!

[RJDiogenes]

Okay, this is the episode where things inevitably go from bad to the worst they can possibly be so that the heroes can fight back from seemingly total defeat and prevail when their odds of victory are less than zero. Fine. At least it was a short one. But, despite all the running and jumping, a few clues, or at least teases, to what's going on were sprinkled around, as well as a couple of nice character moments, plus the most unwelcome plot development of the series thus far.

I'll get the unwelcome part out of the way first. I really hate Section 31. Whoever created Section 31 should be fired. If they no longer are employed by Star Trek, they should be rehired and then fired again, repeatedly, on a daily basis, for all eternity. The origin of Captain Cackle and the Extremists as torture victims of Section 31 is a really, really bad idea.

At the other extreme, what a nice surprise to see Tuvok again. Sadly, it was not really Tuvok. But he looked good, with good ears-- I think his ears have become more Vulcan with age. Hopefully we'll get to see the real guy, alive and well, by the end of the season.

I was happy to see that my theory that Picard's Eukaryotic Syndrome was misdiagnosed all along is coming true. Data mentioned it briefly, before Lore cut him off, and then Cackle said something about something living inside him. Or something. Very likely it is the tiny seed of a new Locutus, which would explain why he continued to hear the Borg later in life (come to think of it, he probably should have had a talk with his PCP about that).

Which would mean that Jack also is a chip off the old Borg-- but that's not really consistent with his symptoms. His visions seem a bit Borgish, but not his latent ninja powers, or his mind-reading abilities, or his ability to control people telepathically. And why does Captain Cackle know his secret? And why did she say he was never really Beverly's? And why was she trying to lure him to some nice happy place? Stranger danger!

More random thoughts:

Geordi had a nice moment with Data-- or trying to reach Data-- recalling their friendship on the Enterprise-D.

Apparently, Data and Lore are the only two active personalities in the Golem, despite Soong, B-4, and Lal being specifically mentioned, which is a little odd.

It's not clear whether Lore is a part of the Changelings' plan or just an accidental agent of chaos. While Captain Cackle seemed to be expecting an intervention while she was captive, it was our guys who independently decided to recover the android when they found him.

So Vulcans avoid planets where there are anti-Kolinahr demonstrations? What happened to IDIC? And who is demonstrating against Kolinahr?

Picard theorized that the Changelings robbed his grave because they needed his genetic information to successfully impersonate him-- Cackle neither confirmed nor denied, so I'm sticking with the Return of Locutus.

We're still no closer to knowing who the true identity of the Big Giant Head is, except that he's not a Changeling-- and does have the power to torture Changelings from afar. And that he must be really hard up for minions, because Captain Cackle is just kind of silly.

For the record, I predict the head is Weyoun #37.

Why were Jack and Sidney assigned to take on all the monster Changelings? No budget for security personnel this episode?

No budget for Worf and Raffie, either, but they're on their way home from being in search of Riker. Which is good, because he's probably just right over there on the Shrike. Possibly with Deanna, who is really getting shafted for screen time compared to everybody else.

Shaw got his nice little action moment here, trying to defend the bridge, though he was pretty ineffective. He didn't look too happy to be tasting floor. I predict a self-sacrificing heroic moment in his near future.

If we're just dealing with an extremist group of Changelings, why are there so many of them? And if there are so many of them, why do they care about this weird Picard plan? And why do they care about Federation Day? They're already in a position to cripple the Federation, if not destroy it outright.

Also, why are the floors in the Titan corridors mirrors? Aren't the 25th-century ships ugly enough without doubling the effect?

Anyway, this episode did what it had to do, I guess-- on to the next one.

[scottydog]

Good episode, as usual. I was really hoping to see Jeffrey Combs. Maybe next week.

I'll get the unwelcome part out of the way first. I really hate Section 31. Whoever created Section 31 should be fired. If they no longer are employed by Star Trek, they should be rehired and then fired again, repeatedly, on a daily basis, for all eternity. The origin of Captain Cackle and the Extremists as torture victims of Section 31 is a really, really bad idea.

What do you dislike Section 31 so much? It kind of makes sense that they'd get involved and do terrible and unethical things to the Changelings, with all their actions disavowed by the Secretary.

Apparently, Data and Lore are the only two active personalities in the Golem, despite Soong, B-4, and Lal being specifically mentioned, which is a little odd.

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe in this situation the strongest personality, Lore, prevails.

For the record, I predict the head is Weyoun #37.

I really hope so. Do you still think there's a chance we'll see a CGI Odo?

[Gary]

Good episode, and I'm chuckling at how RJ has been gas lighting himself into thinking Weyoun would be making an appearance. You seem to forget the Vortas serve the Founders, so there's no way the Big Giant Head (nice Third Rock from the Sun reference) would be giving orders to Captain Cackle,

Also love how you hate Section 31. I've read several Star Trek novels, one of which was a TOS adventure where Kirk learns of Section 31 -- an obscure part of the Federation Charter. No, his mission wasn't to stop 31. He ended up getting confounded by those folks in 31. Also, the Titan's decks are more reflective surfaces than proper mirrors. Just all that flash and sexy people seem to think the future should have. It somewhat beats those muted earth tones from the 1970s.

It also took me a while to remember Geordi had had his eyes replaced after the Generations movie. For some reason, I thought this was the first outing of new eyes. I agree that the "something brewing" in Picard's corpse is some kind of Borg consciousness, so I am agreeable to the argument that Locutus will return.

[RJDiogenes]

What do you dislike Section 31 so much? It kind of makes sense that they'd get involved and do terrible and unethical things to the Changelings, with all their actions disavowed by the Secretary.

It's just antithetical to the ideals of Starfleet and the Federation. It's supposed to be a more positive future.

I really hope so. Do you still think there's a chance we'll see a CGI Odo?

In terms of storytelling, it's awkward not to have Odo more prominently involved. But the unfortunate lack of Rene Auberjonois complicates the matter. It would be nice to at least see him on a viewscreen or something, like Tuvok.

Good episode, and I'm chuckling at how RJ has been gas lighting himself into thinking Weyoun would be making an appearance. You seem to forget the Vortas serve the Founders, so there's no way the Big Giant Head (nice Third Rock from the Sun reference) would be giving orders to Captain Cackle,

Well, I didn't forget, but part of my self-gaslighting is imagining him as a defective or damaged clone who is out for revenge. Remember there was that one clone who was a good guy, so we know that they are subject to errors.

Also, the Titan's decks are more reflective surfaces than proper mirrors. Just all that flash and sexy people seem to think the future should have. It somewhat beats those muted earth tones from the 1970s.

If the mirrored floor is supposed to be sexy, they need to bring back the miniskirts.

I agree that the "something brewing" in Picard's corpse is some kind of Borg consciousness, so I am agreeable to the argument that Locutus will return.

It seems to me that a high-noon showdown between Picard and Locutus would be the perfect finale for the character.

[Gary]

What do you dislike Section 31 so much? It kind of makes sense that they'd get involved and do terrible and unethical things to the Changelings, with all their actions disavowed by the Secretary.

It's just antithetical to the ideals of Starfleet and the Federation. It's supposed to be a more positive future.

Except Section 31 exposes the flaws that the Federation isn't perfect. Section 31 does the dirty work (in the background) to help maintain that idyllic environment. I think Section 31 is a brilliant element to Trek storylines and pokes holes in Picard's statements in early TNG storylines that "mankind has evolved".

[RJDiogenes]

Except Section 31 exposes the flaws that the Federation isn't perfect. Section 31 does the dirty work (in the background) to help maintain that idyllic environment. I think Section 31 is a brilliant element to Trek storylines and pokes holes in Picard's statements in early TNG storylines that "mankind has evolved".

Exactly my point. It's pretty far off message for Trek.

[RJDiogenes]

New episode in the morning!

[RJDiogenes]

Okay, last episode we got the occupation of the ship out of the way-- this episode we got the Negan shit out of the way, as well as the anticlimactic defeat of a sub-par antagonist. Now it's time to settle in for some great character moments.

The highlight of the episode, of course, and probably the season so far, was the culmination of the long conflict between Data and Lore-- and it was definitely inspired. Set in the low-budget android astral plane of the golem's positronic brain, the final showdown depicted the two brothers in their essence-- Lore wanting nothing more than to take everything from Data, and Data happy to give Lore what he lacked. Namely, a life. This is accomplished with the symbols of Data's experience, most notably his meerschaum, his hologram of Tasha, and good old Spot. While it appeared to Geordi from the outside that Lore was defeating Data, Data was actually winning over Lore with kindness, resulting in a new version of Data who benefits from Lore's more flexible personality-- and has something of his flair. This was more or less predicted, but I loved how it was accomplished in this trippy 70s way, like something written by Steve Englehart or Jim Starlin.

Intentionally or not, this season has given us a couple of old-timey Star Trek moral lessons: While Data has shown us that the only real way to defeat an enemy is to make him your friend, Captain Cackle has been an abject lesson in the truism that you become what you hate. Two things that the current generation desperately needs to learn.

In the aftermath of Data's rebirth-- I thought for a minute that he might start calling himself Datalore, which would have been cute, but it's just as well that he didn't-- he and Geordi had a chance for a brief quiet moment together. While Geordi had previously poured his heart out to Data in the midst of a crisis, this was the real reunion between the old friends, and it was heartwarming.

Additionally, there was a nice long scene of Riker and Troi being an old married couple-- yup, Troi finally showed up in the third-to-last episode-- and they did that very well, no doubt because the actors have such a longstanding rapport. It was pure characterization. Very little to do with the story arc, a lot to do with their relationship and the death of their son, and I'd rather watch an hour of this than an allegedly tense hostage situation.

And finally, the big payoff that we've been waiting for for eight episodes: The entire TNG crew together again around a conference table. For most of them, it was the first time they had seen each other in two decades. Nice. It's kind of a shame that it didn't take place on some Enterprise or other, but maybe we'll get that by the end of the season.

Other thoughts:

In "Encounter At Farpoint," Riker called Data Pinocchio-- he's pretty much a real boy at this point. And I kind of like his new style: "This is your pissed-off positronic security system calling the monologuing protoplasm...."

What is it with the smoking? Star Trek should be in the non-smoking section.

Worf's poetic rhapsodizing of Deanna's virtues and Riker's goggle-eyed reaction. "Is this a rescue or more torture?"

Deanna never mentioned how Kestra escaped the clutches of the Changelings, but she obviously did. It's a shame we'll probably never see her again.

It has to be said that Jack's character has evolved nicely from the inexplicable jerk he was originally to a decent person.

It's nice to see Deanna using her telepathic powers in a way that's integral to the plot, something that was seldom done on TNG.

It occurred to me that Jack's red door is not just a red door-- it's a wooden door with peeling paint and an old-fashioned door knob. That has to be significant.

Shaw was angry with Seven for not blowing out the Turbolift, which would have defeated the Changelings and killed him in the process. As a result, the bald Vulcan was killed. Once again, someone else decided that he should live while another died in his place. I wonder if the writers did this deliberately.

Other than that, Shaw was pretty much in the background and ineffectual. They've developed him well as a character, but he's definitely not captain material.

Did Riker and Company recover Picard's corpse or did Seven blow it up? If it got blown up, there goes my theory of a Picard versus Locutus showdown.

And why is everyone still worried about Frontier Day? If the Changelings' plan required Picard's corpse and Jack, then that's all she wrote. Not only is their plan a failure, but nobody even knows that the Big Giant Head exists. Poor thing.

Even though they don't know about the Head yet, he still needs to be defeated. So what's next? Deep Space Nine and the Wormhole, I'm guessing.

[Gary]

It's bad enough they brought back Data. I probably would have shot my TV in disgust had he suggested he be referred to as DataLore. That would have been lackluster, pathetic pandering, let alone unimaginative.

The drawing out of Jack's mystery power is getting to be a bit long in the tooth. I do wonder if the Changelings accomplished anything with their dissection of Picard's brain by having removed the parts affected by Iromodic Syndrome.

[RJDiogenes]

It's bad enough they brought back Data. I probably would have shot my TV in disgust had he suggested he be referred to as DataLore. That would have been lackluster, pathetic pandering, let alone unimaginative.

It's just as well they didn't, but I could have lived with it. Or maybe something like:
"I am now... Datalore."
"Uh, okay... I'm just going to call you Data for short."
"That is fine."

The drawing out of Jack's mystery power is getting to be a bit long in the tooth. I do wonder if the Changelings accomplished anything with their dissection of Picard's brain by having removed the parts affected by Iromodic Syndrome.

I've been thinking that when Jack sees what's behind the red door that he will become the Big Bad of the season. Perhaps a younger version of Locutus, although he seems related to the Changelings in some way. Maybe an amalgam of both.

[Gary]

It's bad enough they brought back Data. I probably would have shot my TV in disgust had he suggested he be referred to as DataLore. That would have been lackluster, pathetic pandering, let alone unimaginative.

It's just as well they didn't, but I could have lived with it. Or maybe something like:
"I am now... Datalore."
"Uh, okay... I'm just going to call you Data for short."
"That is fine."

The drawing out of Jack's mystery power is getting to be a bit long in the tooth. I do wonder if the Changelings accomplished anything with their dissection of Picard's brain by having removed the parts affected by Iromodic Syndrome.

I've been thinking that when Jack sees what's behind the red door that he will become the Big Bad of the season. Perhaps a younger version of Locutus, although he seems related to the Changelings in some way. Maybe an amalgam of both.

Yeah, I was wondering Borg bits from Locutus had infused into Picard's DNA, hence the "weird" effects on Jack.

[RJDiogenes]

And we have a new episode in the morning!