Picard finally does some Trekking to the Stars. Spoilers.
A bit of a mixed episode, that feels like the end of a prologue more than anything else. It’s all pretty scene-y – a couple of big Picard/Raffi scenes, the Rios recruitment scene, the long Borg cube scene. A lot of opportunity for some interesting interactions and acting, but as a result a slower momentum in the plot.
A lot of the episode is spent on two introductions – Picard’s former XO Raffi, and the pilot Rios (and his EMH/ENH). They’re effective in giving a sketch of the characters, and their relationships to Picard. But the characters are both drawn a without a lot of subtlety, with a feeling of impatience.
The other big part of the episode is the long Borg cube scene with Soji and the reclaimed Borg drone. This was mainly mystery box stuff, and really took up far more of the episode than the amount of reveal really justified. So far Soji is just not as interesting a character as Dahj, and her motivations are just a little too obscure for my tastes. This all offset the nice touch of seeing Hugh again.
But by the end of the episode we’re on the ship, and heading out on the adventure, and it feels like the story can really start now.
Quick Hits:
* The Mars effects scenes are extremely good – one of the better action sequences in Star Trek.
* I like the Star Fleet uniforms from 14 years ago. It’s a nice design.
* ‘Raffi said you were a speech maker’ – hah.
* The ENH is an interesting character which we haven’t seen done that way before.
* The cross cut on the falling star was a nice shot.
* So it turns out that gass cabinets also follow the glass table rule in Star Trek.
* The big fight scene in the chateau was good stuff, nice to see Picard’s Romulan assistants do their thing, and the Dr Jurati entrance was a nice way to wrap to (with some nice reactive acting from Alison Pill).
* ‘Engage’, and then the full TNG fanfare? I know this proves what a susceptible trekkie I am, but genuine goosebumps.
781 down.