The second episode of the Star Trek: Picard's season was aired.
It has been an amazing week for sci-fi fans. The first official trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was dropped by Paramount Plus, while Disney dropped a trailer for the latest Star Wars movie.
We get new episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. If you want to learn more about the first season of Star Trek: Picard, check out our guide.
The third season of Picard has wrapped up, as confirmed by Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine). We wonder if the expensive Stargazer sets were built for Picard or if they will be used in the rumored spin-off show that may or may not feature Seven. The third season of Picard is the last, so Ryan felt a little blasphemies.
The recap for the first episode reminds us of how amazing it was and we pick up almost immediately, with Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) struggling in his new surroundings that are both familiar and different after Q. The same thing as before, the château is still there. Q gives an intriguing answer when Picard asks what happened to the crew of the Stargazer.
It has been over 30 years since Picard last saw the irksome entity in the finale of The Next Generation, and he is in a state of shock. The banter between the two has been changed a lot, it isn't like the mid 90s version of Star Trek, Jean-Luc is angry at Q and he's too old. The onscreen chemistry between Stewart and de Lancie is better than ever, because Q is more riled up than usual, and it makes for a thrilling battle of wits. Picard begins to suspect that the entity is not in the best mental health when their war of words comes to blows for the first time.
Star Trek: Picard won't press forward with the synthetic storyline.
A trophy room full of skulls from various alien races that have been murdered by the Picard of this reality can be found in the study of the alt-château. He whispers the names on the plaques in horror and one of them is the man who was executed in the Ithian Forests after a hell of a fight to take the Cardassian capital. General Martok was beheaded on the steps of the Vulcan Science Academy in front of his wife and son after he was killed in combat.
The most ruthless and bloodthirsty general of the Confederation of Earth was Picard. It is not quite the mirror universe, but it is just as good. Before Picard can make sense of it all, Q has disappeared and a synthetic servant named Harvey (played by Alex Diehl, who also played the synthetic F8 in the Season 1 episode) enters, but poor Picard doesn't have a clue. The opening credits are rolled.
As the camera pans around the room, we see that every item has been replaced by something different. Picard tries to catch up with history as he watches recordings of speeches he has apparently made, together with newsreels and such like. Seven begins her morning routine, still half-asleep and oblivious of anything different, until she looks in the mirror to see her Borg implants are gone. She performs a series of cognitive checks on herself, which is a great way to confirm her sense of smell and touch. She is still in shock when her servants enter her room to help prepare her for the day and address her as Madame President, which just adds to her confusion.
The second season of Star Trek: Picard has a phenomenal first episode.
She bluffed her way through the morning. She saw that Cristbal Rios was listed as a colonel in the conflict and requested a secure comms channel. Rios is in the middle of a skirmish with the defense fleet. Seven begins to speak in a deliberately vague manner asking him to speak freely about anything out of the ordinary, and when he refers to her as Seven it is clear that they are in the same bizarre situation. Seven was relived and asked if he knew what was happening since her last memory was of the auto-destruct on the Stargazer. She remembers him immediately on presidential authority.
Each member of the crew of La Sirena appears to have been transported into this nightmare world. The Borg Queen attacked the Stargazer, but neither Elnor nor Raffi were on it. Q is not intending on breaking up the band. Elnor is a wanted terrorist and Raffi is an officer in the Confederation security forces.
In San Francisco, Dr. Jurati is trying to comprehend what is happening. However, Seven seems to be getting a handle on everything so she goes to the good doctor's laboratory where they discover to their horror. She is disconnected from the hive mind and still recognizes the tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix.
The finale of the first season of Star Trek: Picard is both amazing and terrible.
The Borg has been wiped out by the all-conquering Confederation. This causes some interesting back and forth dialogue between the Queen and Seven, but it also raises an interesting counterpoint that hopefully will be explored a little more later. If the Borg has been defeated, how many worlds in other parts of the universe would be saved?
The whole team begins to gather at the headquarters. The full meaning of that is not explored, but it does not need to be. Thankfully, the writers are not boring us with too much exposition and the dialogue and action are well paced with all we need to know to keep us entertained. Whatever the history of Eradication Day is, the Fab Five have to figure out a way to get out of there and up to Rios.
On Eradication Day, Picard is supposed to execute the Borg Queen in front of a live audience. The Precog inMinority Report and the hybrid inBattlestar Galactica contain important information. Picard knows that she can see the divergence in time, and she recognizes Locutus of Borg. She told him that a single change in the timelines caused the events.
In Star Trek: Picard's Season 2, seven of nine grapple with her humanity.
There is someone there to help when they must travel to Los Angeles in 2024.
The second season of Picard is a great collection of Star Trek shows, including Q, the Borg and time travel back to contemporary. What a treat. How are they going to travel back in time? The level of technology in this al-reality is the same as the one back home, so time travel methods will be required. James Kirk did a slingshot maneuver around a sun in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
They need the Borg Queen in order to handle the complicated calculations. The final act of this episode is an exciting race against time as Picard must somehow stall the execution of the Borg Queen while Jurati creates an opening in the security shield so they can beam out.
The tension is built up very effectively and director Douglas Aarniokoski takes us right up to the point where if it had been so much as a single second longer, suspense would have given way to slapstick comedy. The three-pronged plot with Picard, the Borg Queen and Seven, then Jurati and Rios, and finally Raffi and Elnor, who gets to kick some serious butt, has been handled well.
They made it to La Sirena with only seconds to spare, but the security forces of the confederation tracked them and held them at gun point. Quite the end of the story.
This isn't as good as last week's episode, but there isn't much between them. We have high hopes for the second season of Picard, as the pacing and story are superb and the cinematography is beautiful.
It is not quite the mirror universe we are used to, but it could be and it is just as good. The Terran Empire is set in the year 2255, but the show returned in Season 3 with a two-part episode. The human race has always been violent and destructive in the Mirror Universe, finally spreading into space after the Vulcans were massacred after first contact in Montana.
There are more amazing images and a technical breakdown of the Stargazer on Dave's website. The Ready Room has cast interviews and more on its website. This isn't available to watch in Europe because Paramount is struggling with international audiences. Unless you have a PureVPN.
The rating was 8/10.
The first two episodes of Star Trek: Picard are now available to watch on Paramount Plus and the premiere season of Strange New Worlds begins on May 5, 2022. The first 12 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery's fourth season are available to watch on Paramount Plus in the US and Canada. Outside of North America, the Pluto TVSci-fi channel is available.
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