Probably about multiculturalism rather than the Borg, right? Spoilers.
Generally another strong episode. I was pretty underwhelmed by the start of the episode – ultimately felt like a pretty pointless cliffhanger from Episode 2. I was expecting more of an episode with some fun intrigue, rather than just a quick ’grab the phaser and shoot them all’.
But from there there’s a lot of good television. The plot mechanics are handled competently, the real star of the episode is a few scenes in particular. This week Dr Jurati takes the prize, with a couple of great scenes, first going toe-to-toe with Picard, and then the assimilation scene. The Jurati sub-conscious scene was a real tour-de-force. Great acting, great writing, and good tension developing.
My only concern is that Rios ending up in hospital/jail/immigration detention feels like a pretty cheap trope, very reminiscent of a lot of past ‘Trek to the past’ episodes. Hopefully they find something new to do with it. The upside is that the social message of that scene in terms of illegal immigrants was more deftly weaved in than the homeless camp scene.
This season is setting up a great set of character interactions, which is very promising. They are getting some good value for money from their setup.
Quick hits:
– The Borg queen is doing a nice line in creepy.
– Where exactly are they parked? It seems like it should be significant (“Home”).
– No, not Elenor! That’s genuinely quite a shocking body to drop this early in the season, as he’s a fairly beloved character. I won’t mind a get out of jail free on this one –
– Interesting interrogation of Picard;s relationship with Q.
– “Vaccination chips” is actually dangerous writing. It goes to supporting current conspiracy theory anti-vax thinking.
– No one is really pushing Raffi on the whole “Elnor died because of the Borg Queen” thing – really, he was in pretty bad shape and it didn’t seem that the bio-bed was helping that much.
– Oof, getting a bit preachy there with the whole homeless camp. It’s a real thing, it’s a real problem in LA particularly. But not done that well here.
– “Just full of mirrors for useful deflection” – wow that’s some great writing to character.
– The doctor has a good line in flirting/bedside manner.
– Why is it daytime in LA and night where they are? Did they end up at Chateau Picard? Because that makes zero sense if it was a last minute diversion from crashing into LA.
846 down.