Star Trek: Picard (Season 3), Episode 1: I came to the Star Trek fandom relatively late. Like most of the sci-fi community unfamiliar with the franchise, I came on board with the JJ Abrams-led Star Trek (2009) film. However, that film boosted my interest in exploring the franchise in all its enormity.
As I dove in, I discovered that the world of Star Trek is significantly more interested in big ideas, big themes, and the relevant exploration of social issues within the framework of narrative in the unique world of the Star Trek franchise. On the other hand, the films leaned more towards the franchise’s action spectacle nature (which it had in pulpy outburst, but it did), but they never lost sight of what the franchise had been about.
Thus, the new iteration of Star Trek, led by the production house of Alex Kurtzman and Co., called Secret Hideout, immediately began to raise flags among Star Trek fans with the first season of Star Trek Discovery. Canonicity discrepancy be damned, the show had become far too aggressive and far too involved in delivering specific messages instead of letting the story unfold on its own merits with the message organically weaved into the story, and it also very much felt like a product of this time.
The best of Star Trek might have been made 50 years ago or 30 years ago. Still, its themes, its ideas, and its storytelling ensured that the ethos of Star Trek remained timeless, irrespective of the future it envisioned and the difference that entails. The two seasons of Star Trek: Picard exacerbated the problems.
Ostensibly sold as a sequel to Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard felt like an edgier beast, a version of Star Trek created by an individual far too interested in making a science fiction show “cool,” “edgy,” “violent,” and “viscerally enjoyable,” but at the cost of lackluster storytelling, nonsensical character development, huge discrepancies in canonicity, and a confused, overplotted story. In short, Star Trek: Picard was a mess, made solely watchable due to the presence of characters we knew and loved but simultaneously distressing because of how weirdly they were written.
It begs the question: why continue at all with Star Trek: Picard Season 3?
Because, like all Star Trek fans would tell you, “Hope springs eternal.” A ray of hope was seen with the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which called back to the ethos and the vibe of the original Star Trek far more effectively than I ever expected it to. It had its fair share of problems, but its positives far outweighed the negatives for this fan, who is starved for new and good Star Trek content.
Of course, if necessary, we can go back and rewatch the TV series and the movies. God knows there is enough to last at least six months. But this season’s highly positive early reviews interest me enough to give this show a shot with an open mind. As Captain Picard himself said in the seventh episode of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Life itself is an exercise in exceptions.”
Star Trek: Picard (Season 3), Episode 1 Recap:
“The Next Generation”
The episode begins with the tagline, “In the 25th Century… The interesting thing to note is that the tagline is shown in the classic blue font of the credits of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Reliance on and a callback to the classics are given precedence when we are first shown a gaseous nebula, and as the “camera” moves in closer, we see a starship lying in wait as The Ink Spots’ “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” plays in the background.
We see a darker-colored enemy ship slowly circle over to the starship. We are then led inside the starship and fed references galore as the camera moves through the interior of the spaceship (“Eleos,” we soon learn). There is an audio log already open, repeating the captain’s log for stardate 43996.2. (Eagle-eyed fans know this as the TNG third season closer “The Best of Both Worlds,” the episode which firmly established the Borg as one of the definitive antagonists of the Next Generation Era; hopefully, the Borg aren’t the antagonists in this season because they already had a major presence in the first two seasons of Picard.)
We see a plaque referencing Cor Caroli V (the planet in which the third season episode “Allegiance” takes place), a footlocker belonging to Cmdr: Jack Crusher, and a glass of blue Romulan ale at the table. The footlocker was the clue, and our expectations were rewarded by being met with Dr. Beverly Crusher, one of our old friends who we, as fans, hadn’t seen in the last two seasons. We learn that she is on the run with a group of shady-looking aliens, and the ship has finally found them.
Interestingly, Eleos’ computer system is running with an operating system resembling that of Enterprise-D. We see the shady-looking aliens having docked on the Eleos and entering the ship through the cargo bay, and Beverly Crusher managing to dispatch them with phasers. Crusher looks older, but it seems like she has picked up some skills, while the show is also maintaining that dark and action-heavy vibe of the earlier two seasons.
Having dispatched the aliens (who disintegrate into dust, which is interesting), but also having been hit by one of the opposing phasers, she manages to send a coded message to her old friend Admiral Jean-Luc Picard as the Eleos escapes to warp, with the alien ship automatically undocking and two more ships following. The show title is revealed, with a score that feels like a mix of the traditional Trek score and the ending coda of the Jeff Russo theme for Picard. There’s also the episode title “Part One,” with the name “The Next Generation,” perhaps fittingly.
The scene shifts to Chateau Picard, where Jean-Luc Picard and his partner Laris (the Romulan secret agent from last season) are debating whether to remove the Enterprise’s painting from the mantlepiece. Jean-Luc decides to gift this painting to Geordi La-Forge, who we learn is running “The Fleet Museum.” We assume it means that he is running a museum housing all the classic starships. In fact, we already know that LeVar Burton is coming back this season, so let’s hope we see that museum as well.
We return to Jean Luc, who we realize is finally content to be retired and not interested in a legacy anymore. He might want to write a book, move to the Romulan planet Chaltok IV with Laris, sip Saurian brandy, and live out his days. It’s a rosy disposition, except that in the earlier seasons, we knew that Picard was now an android, so he couldn’t die.
Thus lies the long-term plot issue, which I sincerely hope they address. (We also see Picard holding the flute from the classic episode of TNG, “The Inner Light,” while stating that he doesn’t want a legacy anymore, which, if fans recall that episode, would make them realize that Picard had already lived a full life in that universe. So maybe his reluctance to leave a legacy stems deeper).
However, Beverly Crusher’s coded message finally reaches Jean-Luc’s old Starfleet combadge, and he also recalls that same codec that we see Beverly decrypt her coordinates-filled message with. As Picard learns about Beverly, we see him conversing with Laris and learn that Beverly Crusher had stopped interacting with the members of the old crew for over 20 years (shortly after the events of the 2002 film “Star Trek Nemesis”).
Laris emphasizes that Beverly in the video looked genuinely scared, and she is out of options and finally has decided to ask Picard for help, thus the emphasis on “No Starfleet.” We see her hesitate and battle within herself before urging Picard to go, promising to save a seat for him “at the lovely bar on Chaltok IV, where you can see the sunset from.” As far as removing a character from the rest of the season goes, this is narratively much smoother.
Picard meets Captain Riker at Guinan’s Bar during the 250th anniversary of Earth’s first contact with Vulcans, as depicted in the film Star Trek: First Contact. It’s fantastic to watch Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes share the screen again and have instant chemistry. Unlike the last two seasons, Riker’s presence already in the show suggests that we might be getting him for the entirety of the season, and that is exciting.
We also learn that Riker and Deanna Troi’s marriage is strained. As Picard recounts the message to Riker, we learn from Riker what “Hellbird” means. When The Borg took over the Enterprise in “The Best of Both Worlds,” they infected the central computer with a virus, adding 3 to every digit and scrambling their navigation system.
Riker uses that technique and feeds in the new coordinates, which correspond to the Ryton System. Riker, now fully on board to figure out and rescue Beverly, hatches a plan to hijack the USS Titan-A, Riker’s old ship, which has now been retrofitted and is under new captaincy. Of course, while this is happening, we see that their conversation has already been eavesdropped on.
I hate to be that Star Trek fanboy (that’s not true; I love it), but something about the Star Trek starship glamour shots evoking “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” or even “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” feels comforting. So far, this episode has been successful in replicating the feeling of watching “a Star Trek show” again instead of almost deliberately moving away from the markers of Star Trek. Fan service, if done right, could be a boon. So far, the fan service hasn’t taken over the narrative of the storytelling at all but still manages to evoke a continuity with the older shows, be it the familiar computer systems, shifting the narrative inside a starship again, or heavily reusing Jerry Goldsmith’s old score from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, later used in The Next Generation.
On board, we meet the first officer, Annika Hansen, AKA Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), and Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick), the commander of the ship. Seven feels the most different from her appearances in the last two seasons, as a member of the rangers and a murderous bounty hunter. While being part of Starfleet makes her feel stiffer, her character progression throughout Star Trek: Voyager makes her current character progression feel far more sensible.
As the trio enters the bridge of the Titan, looking through the starship, remarking upon “its new ship smell,” they also meet one of “the next next generation” in Sidney La Forge, the navigator of the Titan. Her interactions with Riker reveal that she had always wanted to be a pilot, but apparently, her nickname of “Crash” does have some validity. Captain Shaw, on the other hand, is, from a narrative standpoint, positioned to be an antagonist, except Stashwick plays him with a healthy dose of charisma and screen presence, be it in his casual dismissal of Picard’s wine or his remarking on Riker’s freewheeling attitude by comparing it with the bebop and jazz he had to “purge from the Titan’s systems.”
Shaw is almost uncharacteristically blunt, and while that would imply villainy, all of his objections regarding Picard and Riker’s presence on this ship make logical sense. While Picard, Riker, and the rest of the crew’s adventures made for great television, in-universe, it must have been a nightmare for other captains who followed Starfleet norms and structure. Interestingly, the Next Generation crew is getting so much flak, given that the original crew of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were far more daring in their adventures.
Riker’s proposition to redirect the ship to the Ryton System is met with healthy skepticism, while Picard’s to inspect the ship at Deep Space 4 is countered coolly by Shaw, who reminds Picard that DS4 has been shut down for over a year. Hansen manages to divert Shaw’s attention by reminding Picard that it is DS11 he is talking about. But the skepticism remains, with a healthy dose of condescension on Shaw’s part.
The refusal on Shaw’s part is final, with sharp counters to both Picard’s emphasis on his admiralty (“Retired”) and Riker’s captaincy (“Without a chair”) and an exceptionally stern one to Seven’s proposal, reminding her of her loyalty to her ship and not to her old friends and an ex-Borg (interestingly, calling back to Picard’s time as Locutus in “The Best of Both Worlds”).
Seven, resentful of Shaw’s treatment and perhaps lacking trust in her, turn the ship around while Shaw is resting in his quarters and Picard and Riker are in their bunk beds. Seven’s outburst at Picard and Riker for not revealing their secrets to her is fascinating, particularly Seven’s frustrations with joining Starfleet and having to put up with Shaw’s acerbic behavior. Picard’s answer to her dilemma of whether to follow instincts or follow orders is especially telling and also quite funny: “If you find the answer, will you let me know?”
Meanwhile, Raffi (Michelle Hurd) is shown to be in a separate subplot, seemingly disconnected from the main plotline. A former drug addict who is now an undercover spy working for an unidentified Starfleet contact, Raffi has ties to the local underworld at M’Talas Prime and is looking for a mystery weapon that was taken from a Federation space station. The weapon is essentially a portal gun with the strength to engulf starships and buildings. Raffi watches the Starfleet recruitment facility being sucked into the ground before being dropped from a mile above.
Star Trek: Picard (Season 3), Episode 1 Ending, Explained:
Back at the Titan, Seven reveals that they discovered a ship operating at low power levels inside the nebula’s outermost edge. The nebula’s cosmic activity is interfering with the Titan’s ability to scan for life forms. By the time Shaw realized what had occurred and arrived at the bridge to question Seven, Picard and Riker had managed to escape the Titan via a shuttle and were on their way to the Eleos.
Inside the shuttle, Picard uploads Beverly’s last medical profile, which matches one of the two life signs inside Eleos and shows critical signs. As Picard and Riker enter the Eleos, they hear what is essentially Picard’s “mixtape,” which he once made for Beverly. Riker also inspects the cargo bay, correctly deducing how Beverly had managed to dispatch the aliens and wondering whether this is the same Beverly Crusher they knew.
As Picard enters the bridge of Eleos, he finds what looks like a cryo chamber housing Beverly. Still, Riker is ambushed by the second passenger of Eleos, Jack Crusher, Beverly Crusher’s son. Played by actor Ed Speelers with a very noticeable British accent, Jack Crusher feels like a “Han Solo” type character in the Star Trek universe: brash and headstrong.
The ship starts wobbling as a massive pointy ship (unfortunately very much resembling Nero’s ship from Star Trek ’09) emerges out of the nebula, while Jack reveals to Picard and Riker that they are being hunted and that each time the enemy had a different face.
Final thoughts:
The mystery box approach to storytelling, which had so far plagued the seasons of Picard, feels completely discarded here. Instead, Picard Season 3 feels like a 10-hour Star Trek movie, but with enough references and conversational moments, it distinctly feels different from the seasons that preceded it.
The questions raised are interesting, and the new characters introduced have piqued my curiosity. I am inclined to hang around with this season so far, with the caveat that the show doesn’t completely derail itself halfway through. There is, however, a distinct confidence in this season’s storytelling, which makes me feel cautiously optimistic.
