worf – Trekking with Dennis

Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode Re-Watch – Season 2, Episode 12: The Royale

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Do you remember your “first contact” with the Star Trek franchise? The *very first* episode or film you ever watched?

Let’s set the scene! It’s the 19th of June, 1991. The Soviet Union, while in decline and wounded by the revolutions of 1989, still exists, and the coup attempt that finished it off hasn’t yet taken place. The England football team is still reeling from a semi-final defeat at last year’s World Cup in Italy. The World Wide Web doesn’t exist publicly yet. And Sonic the Hedgehog won’t be released on Sega’s new Mega Drive/Genesis console for a few more days.

It was also on this day that The Royale premiered in the United Kingdom, on the channel BBC 2. And this is the very first episode of Star Trek that I can ever remember watching. Thirty-five years ago this very day, I began my journey as a Trekkie. And I thought it could be fun to mark the occasion by taking a look at the episode together.

A photo of cars parked outside a railway station in the UK in 1991 — I’ve chosen this photograph to represent the summer of 1991 in the UK!
*Photo: Ben Brooksbank / Eastcote station, entrance 1991, via Wikimedia Commons*

Okay, let’s step back for a moment. The Royale is the first episode of The Next Generation that I can remember watching in its entirety. However, I’m reasonably sure that I’d seen at least *parts* of other episodes prior to that. And my uncle, who was big TOS fan, had certainly talked Trek with me when I was a wee bairn! I can very vividly recall being enthralled with a toy phaser that he owned when I must’ve been only five or so – a solid two or three years prior to this moment. So why pick The Royale, then? Fair question!

This is the moment at which I became a regular viewer of The Next Generation, kick-starting a love of Star Trek which has persisted to the present day. Even if I’d played with that toy phaser a couple of years earlier, or watched parts of other episodes… The Royale is the one that turned me into a Trekkie. This is the moment I decided that Star Trek was something I needed to see more of; a TV show that I couldn’t put down and a world I wanted desperately to explore. Is it a great episode in its own right, or one of the best offerings in the franchise? Arguably not – though I’m afraid the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia rather blind me to that! But it’s a special episode for me personally, as it marks the moment when I fully joined the Star Trek fan community.

Photo of William Shatner, Gene Roddenberry, and Patrick Stewart at an event — William Shatner, Gene Roddenberry, and Patrick Stewart, circa 1990-91.

At this moment in the early summer of 1991, I’d have been finishing Year 3 at school (which I believe is the equivalent of second grade in Ameria; not sure on that, though). My memory isn’t great these days, but I can remember some of the things I experienced that year. Year 3 marked the beginning of being in the “Juniors” at school, not the “Infants” with the younger year groups. It was around this time that I got my first taste of computing – at my small school in the rural north of England, there was only one computer, and it was in the Juniors classroom! I can remember sitting with another pupil – an older girl – as I had my first-ever lesson on a BBC Micro. I looked down at the keyboard and told the girl, with some alarm, that I wanted to use “little letters, not big letters” (meaning lowercase, not uppercase) and listened as she explained to me that the keyboard could write *both* sets of letters!

At home, we didn’t have a computer. My household had a landline telephone, a single television set, and a Betamax recorder that my parents would begrudgingly swap for VHS later in ’91. And we didn’t own a games console, either – although I’d played games before, at a kids’ club and at my uncle’s place, I wouldn’t get my first games console for another year. I finally got a Super Nintendo in the summer of 1992.

Stock photo of a Sony Betamax recorder — A Betamax recorder, similar to the one my parents owned in June 1991.

Sorry, this is turning into a stumble down memory lane, isn’t it?

But I suppose that’s a testament to the power of media. When I re-watched The Royale, I wasn’t just revisiting the episode and its story. I was stepping back in time to the moment I became a Star Trek fan, and that brings with it a certain amount of reflection. The world has changed a lot since that episode premiered here in the UK some thirty-five years ago. In fact, it’s almost unrecognisable in some ways. If I could magically teleport through time and sit down with my eight-year-old self, they’d be *stunned* to hear about some of the things that happened in the intervening years. And probably a little shocked at my appearance, too!

My point is that this episode holds a very special – and an utterly unique – place in my heart. Returning to it is always fun, but when I started to put pen to paper to write about it, I found myself wallowing in memories. Because this episode made me a Trekkie, I can’t help thinking back to that time in my life and reflecting on all of the things that have changed. Returning to The Royale today, on the thirty-fifth anniversary of its UK premiere, is something I’ve been looking forward to! I guess I just didn’t expect to take such a diversion back to my own past and my own schooldays.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek TNG showing the empty bridge set — A behind-the-scenes photo of the bridge of the Enterprise-D.

Season 2 of The Next Generation coined the phrase “growing the beard;” the opposite of “jumping the shark.” This phrase means, in brief, that a television show has improved significantly after a rougher first season, and references Jonathan Frakes’ character of Will Riker, who first got his iconic beard this year. While I don’t agree at all with the sentiment that Season 1 of TNG is somehow “bad” in its entirety, I think it’s fair to say that the show went from strength to strength, growing into something better over time.

And it’s that moment that I joined in and became a Star Trek fan. That can’t be a coincidence, can it? In fairness, I’ve always wondered what I might’ve made of Star Trek if, at this seminal moment, I’d have watched an episode like Angel One, or a similar lowly-rated story from Season 1. Would I have persevered with Star Trek, or written it off? I suppose we’ll never know… but it’s an interesting “what if” idea, isn’t it?

Two side-by-side still frames from Star Trek TNG S1 and S2 showing Riker — Riker in Season 1 (left) and Season 2 (right).

If you’ve made it this far, thanks! I think we’re finally ready to get into The Royale and its story.

The Royale aired at the midpoint of The Next Generation’s second season, in between Contagion and Time Squared. It was broadcast in the United States more than two years ahead of its UK premiere, in March 1989, and was written by Tracy Tormé and directed by Cliff Bole. Bole had previously worked on William Shatner’s police show T. J. Hooker, and had directed three episodes of TNG’s first season, including the penultimate episode, Conspiracy. He’d go on to direct almost two dozen more, as well as seven episodes of Deep Space Nine and ten of Voyager.

Tracy Tormé, the episode’s writer, is credited under a pseudonym for The Royale, as a result of conflicts with Maurice Hurley, TNG’s head writer for Season 2; Hurley had made changes and revisions to Tormé’s original script for the episode. According to Chaos on the Bridge, William Shatner’s documentary about the making of The Next Generation, Tormé and Hurley regularly butted heads during Seasons 1 and 2, before Tormé ultimately left the series ahead of Season 3.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing the Enterprise-D — The opening shot of the episode.

According to director Cliff Bole, The Royale suffered from having a low budget. The revolving door leading into the hotel – and, really, the entire surface of Theta VIII outside of the hotel – is, to be incredibly generous, “minimalist!” Even the remastered version of the episode doesn’t change this (for which I’m actually glad), but I think there’s a weird kind of low-budget charm to the way the planet and away mission are presented. It’s kind of like The Original Series with its papier-mache and polystyrene rocks; something about that, while objectively unrealistic in its appearance, just… “feels like Star Trek,” or at least it does to me!

Tracy Tormé has said that his original draft was much more surreal, and from what I can glean, it sounds like it might’ve been closer to The Original Series in tone, perhaps with more of a focus on comedy or even outright silliness. Allegedly, this version of the story was felt to be too similar to A Piece of the Action from TOS; both stories involve an alien society contaminated by a book from Earth, and both had gangsters in them. That version of the episode may have been a lot funnier… or it could’ve been a lot worse, but I suppose we’ll never know, eh?

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing a revolving door — A very minimalist set…

The episode begins with the Enterprise-D arriving at Theta VIII, and a brief discussion between Riker and Geordi about the planet. This sets up Theta VIII as an inhospitable place; a freezing planet with high winds and ammonia tornadoes. It’s a cute little conversation, and I like the shot of Riker on the bridge, moving from the front, near the helm and conn positions, to Geordi’s station at the back. It’s not something we’d see a lot of across the show, this kind of panning shot, following a command character as they move between stations.

It’s also a bit of a rarity to see Geordi on the bridge after Season 1, and I think this moment worked a lot better than if, say, Riker had called down to Engineering. Having the two together, with Riker looking over Geordi’s shoulder for the chat, just felt a bit more personal and familiar, adding to the sense that these two are friends as well as colleagues. Not a huge moment in the episode, considering what’s to come – but I still really like it!

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Riker and Geordi — Riker with Geordi on the bridge.

Riker’s conversation with Picard in the Ready-Room has drawn a lot of attention over the years, but not for the reasons the writer may have wanted! Picard talks about Fermat’s last theorem, which was a famously unsolved problem in mathematics, and uses it as an example of how much Starfleet and the Federation still have to learn about the universe. This point is interesting, and it establishes a couple of things about Picard: that he spends his downtime thinking about puzzles like this, and that he’s keenly aware of how far humanity still has to go to uncover the mysteries of the universe. It neatly encapsulates who Picard is, why he’d join an organisation like Starfleet – and why, all these years later, he’s a character that so many of us absolutely adore!

But this moment has been overshadowed somewhat by the solution to Fermat’s last theorem! Only a few years after The Royale aired, mathematician Andrew Wiles published his proof, rendering Picard’s statement inaccurate. And some fans and viewers hold up this moment not as Picard being philosophical about Starfleet’s mission of exploration… but rather, as an example of how Star Trek’s vision of the future can be invalidated as the world around it shifts. I don’t really like that approach, and while we can look back at this scene now, with the benefit of hindsight, and acknowledge that, factually speaking, Picard is now incorrect to say that Fermat’s last theorem was never solved… I think his point still stands! And it feels a little pedantic for folks to seize on this moment as a kind of “gotcha” to say that Star Trek gets its vision of the future wrong. Star Trek, for me anyway, kind of exists in a floating timeline, and while we wouldn’t make an episode today using Fermat’s last theorem in this way, the point Picard was making about how humanity still has a long way to go to understand the universe isn’t invalidated. It’s interesting, though, that the proof was published only a few years after the episode aired.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Riker and Picard — This discussion of Fermat’s last theorem is interesting.

The teaser ends with the revelation that the debris detected in orbit of Theta VIII is from a NASA spacecraft. I like the little scene in the transporter room, and it’s always fun to see Chief O’Brien prior to his role in Deep Space Nine! However, I can’t help but feel like this moment – which is treated as a huge revelation by the episode – doesn’t quite make sense if you stop to think about it. Why wouldn’t either the Klingon cruiser or the Enterprise-D have been able to detect that the debris was of Earth origin? And given how much random junk and debris there must be in space, why would the Enterprise-D have diverted here just for that? Would the episode have been a bit more solid if it began with the message from the Klingons saying that they’d detected the wreck of an Earth spacecraft in orbit of Theta VIII?

I think this is an example of the passage of time – and the fact that I’ve seen this episode so many times over the years – getting in the way! The “big reveal” of the NASA emblem doesn’t shock me any more, and it hasn’t since I was eight years old and I first saw the episode! But that isn’t The Royale’s fault, and thinking about the mystery that the episode wants to establish going into the ad break… it’s done pretty well. I just get the sense that, if you think about it from an in-universe point of view, the Enterprise-D wouldn’t have necessarily diverted to Theta VIII for no reason, and the Klingons probably wouldn’t have even mentioned the debris unless they knew it was of human origin. Changing that would’ve completely ruined the shock of seeing the NASA emblem and American flag, but I’d still argue it would make more sense in-universe for the crew to have deliberately set out to recover the debris of a ship from Earth, rather than diverting the entire ship to take a look at some random space junk.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing O'Brien and Riker with the NASA debris — O’Brien and Riker with the recovered debris.

In the Conference Room, the crew briefly discuss what they’ve found. The damage to the debris could indicate it was hit by weapons fire, and Picard states that there’s no way a vessel from the mid-21st Century could have travelled so far into deep space. I think it’s fun to see, now we’re almost forty years on from The Next Generation’s premiere, how the show, especially in its first couple of seasons, was trying to remain consistent with The Original Series and its vision of Earth in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. Encounter at Farpoint showed us the aftermath of World War III and the “post-atomic horror,” and now we’re getting NASA spacecraft from that same kind of era venturing beyond the solar system.

As we get closer to some of these dates and moments in real-time, we can see how wrong those depictions were! And that’s kind of sad, in a way. But speaking as we were of Star Trek having a kind of “floating timeline,” where events in the real world can ultimately overwrite some of these ideas… I don’t think it really matters all that much. If you look at Star Trek episodes produced in the 2020s, they might not reference the “mid-21st Century” in quite the same way, but Star Trek’s internal timeline is, for me, vague enough to still come together! And my personal head canon, anyway, is that Star Trek diverged from the real world at some point in the mid/late 20th Century! But I think we’ve gotten a little off-topic, huh?

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Data and Picard — Data and Picard in the Conference Room.

I love the handheld phasers that the crew use for the away mission. A lot of phaser designs feel “iconic,” but something about the models used in the first part of The Next Generation just feels even more special, somehow. Perhaps that’s the nostalgia talking again! This model, lovingly referred to as the “dustbuster” after a handheld vacuum cleaner that it resembles, was seen on a few occasions across Seasons 1 and 2, but was changed by Season 3.

To get back on topic, Wesley and Geordi show Picard and the others a “structure” that they’ve detected on the surface of Theta VIII. And here’s where I feel like the script and the production didn’t quite align! This structure, briefly glimpsed on Wesley’s monitor, is simply never shown at all; the away team beams down to a black void with a simple revolving door set into it, and the exterior of the hotel is simply never seen, nor even acknowledged. This is clearly a consequence of the budget issues we talked about, and I happen to find the black void and simple door to be suitably mysterious and otherworldly, especially for the kind of story the episode is setting up. But it’s also a bit of an inconsistency, if you think about it, and it makes me wonder why they didn’t rework this moment on the bridge to perhaps make note of a pocket of breathable air, but not draw attention to the existence of a “structure” that we never get to see.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing an LCARS scan — We never actually get to see what this structure looks like.

The away team beams down to Theta VIII, and they encounter the revolving door! One thing I didn’t realise until looking into the production history of The Royale is that all of the sets for the hotel were constructed specifically for The Next Generation – they didn’t use an existing hotel or casino set, which is genuinely fascinating. I guess it must’ve been cheaper to do that than to try to book an existing location or reuse a set from another series, but… how?

Director Cliff Bole, who had previously worked on a crime drama called Vegas, described the set as being built with “curtains,” and recalled that whole scenes needed to be shot from very specific angles so as not to give the game away! The moment the away team walks into the hotel for the first time, though, doesn’t feel – to me, anyway – like actors walking onto a set. The number of people in frame, as well as the score and sound design, too, make the hotel’s casino feel like a very real – if mysterious and otherworldly – space.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing the casino — The casino.

The interaction with the assistant manager at the hotel’s front desk is still, all these years later, absolutely hilarious. Sam Anderson, the actor who took on the role, has absolutely perfect comedic timing, especially in this first encounter. As Riker and Worf push him on what the planet’s called… I can’t help but laugh every single time, no matter how many times I’ve seen The Royale.

Anderson would go on to have roles in films like Forrest Gump and TV shows like ER and Lost.

There’s a creepiness to this interaction, making us think that the assistant manager is hiding things or refusing to share everything he knows about the hotel or the planet it’s situated on, and that successfully builds up more of the mystery that The Royale is going for.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing the assistant manager — The assistant manager.

It’s also at this moment that we get the first signs of the episode’s other angle: the cheap story from a low-quality novel. Playing out like a tired cliché of the crime and drama genres, the hotel’s bellboy interrupts the away team to talk to the assistant manager about a girl. And the soundtrack here! It’s just pitch-perfect for this kind of over-the-top drama cliché; exactly the kind of thing you’d have heard in a B-movie or TV soap opera. The dramatic change in music adds so much to this scene, indicating to us as the audience that there’s something very strange going on. I love it!

This leads into the revelation that none of the people the away team has encountered are emitting life-signs. And this gets a little confusing; Data explains that they exist, but that they aren’t organic, nor are they machines. Again, the mysteries of the story are deepening. And we get a fun introduction to the character “Texas” to round things off.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing the away team — The away team scanning for life-forms.

We get a brief scene back aboard the Enterprise-D with Wesley and Geordi still working on a way to break through the communications blackout. Picard talks to them, wondering whether something intelligent may be blocking their signal, and then hears from Counsellor Troi that Riker doesn’t appear to be in danger; she describes his mood as “amused,” which obviously tracks with what we just saw! This little scene on the bridge doesn’t add a lot, but it’s a fun little cutaway in its own right.

I think it might’ve been interesting for Picard to ask Troi, rather than Wesley and Geordi, whether there was some kind of intelligence or life-form at work here. Surely she’d be able to tell whether there was anyone else down there besides the away team, and that could’ve impacted how the crew were reacting to the situation. Deanna’s empathic abilities are not always perfect, of course, but she might’ve been able to join in this conversation and share her perspective, at least. Again, a nitpick – but it’s a role we’ve seen Troi fill multiple times already, even at this point in the show’s run, commenting on the likes of Q or the Ferengi, to name but two examples. So I don’t think it’s out of the question for Picard to have asked her if she could feel another presence down on Theta VIII.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Picard and Troi — Why doesn’t Captain Picard ask Counsellor Troi if she can sense another intelligence or presence down on the planet?

The blackjack scene with “Texas” is funny. Noble Willingham, the actor who played the role, would later go on to have a starring role in Walker, Texas Ranger with Chuck Norris, and he just feels perfectly cast as the old gambler in The Royale. He reminds me of The Simpsons’ character of the Rich Texan, thanks to a similar outfit, accent, and mannerisms, and I just think he’s a really fun and pretty unique character across really the entirety of Star Trek. He fits perfectly into this pulpy, low-quality novel, but there’s an edge to the character, too.

We get some genuinely cute moments with Texas and Data – Texas gives him his stetson hat to wear, briefly, and tries to talk him out of asking for another card during the game. I’m not a gambler, and I’m not all that familiar with blackjack as a game, but its rules are simple enough to understand – and Data explains them well – meaning it makes for a good choice of game to show off in a scene like this. Trying to explain the rules of a more complex game would’ve taken too long and could’ve been confusing or just less engaging for the audience.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing "Texas" — “Texas.”

After another short scene on the bridge, it soon becomes clear to the away team that they’re trapped in the hotel. The scene of the three of them running through the revolving door is a little silly, to be honest; they’re clearly just going all the way around and coming back out into the hotel, and it makes for a kind of comical presentation which contrasts with how seriously all three characters are taking it! But it does well enough to establish the core premise: they’re stuck in the hotel, unable to leave, and also cut off from communicating with the Enterprise.

The Royale always reminded me a little of The Eagles’ song Hotel California. Remember the line “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”? Isn’t that pretty much the premise of the story here, that escaping the hotel is impossible? I’ve never seen other Trekkies making that link, though, so maybe that’s just a me thing! And the song isn’t *literally* about a magically inescapable hotel, it’s a metaphor. Still, I find the comparison to be a fun one.

A behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek TNG S2 showing Brent Spiner — Behind-the-scenes during production.

Riker attempts to talk to the assistant manager again, but makes no progress in figuring out how to leave the hotel. The Enterprise-D is able to briefly get in contact with Riker, but only long enough for him to tell Picard that they can’t leave the building. We get another scene with the bellboy and the assistant manager, with that absolutely wonderful scene-setting score again! And I just really love this incredibly cheesy story that’s unfolding at the hotel; it’s so silly, but it’s so… *Star Trek* at the same time.

Maybe you won’t agree, but I think The Royale is the kind of episode that modern Star Trek wouldn’t do. We’ve seen recent episodes involving time travel, including to the modern day, as well as stories involving aliens capable of generating illusions not dissimilar to the hotel in The Royale. But this kind of self-contained story – an alien recreation of a low-budget Las Vegas hotel, based on a book, and complete with one-dimensional characters played with self-awareness by the performers? I mean… would modern Star Trek do something like that? I doubt it… but it’s episodes like this one that make Star Trek what it is, at least to me. Recent stories all seem to be galactic in scope, with existential threats to the entire Federation and moustache-twirling villains who are played completely earnestly. The Royale is totally aware of the kind of books and TV shows it’s parodying, and I think that self-awareness is a big part of how well it works.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing the bellboy — The bellboy with his gun.

After a cute moment with Worf at the “turbolift,” the action moves to one of the hotel’s upper floors – and it’s here that the mystery begins to be explained. The away team reaches one of the hotel’s rooms, where Data’s detected “human DNA,” and they uncover the body of one of the NASA astronauts.

For a Star Trek episode, on a relatively low budget, produced in the late ’80s… the prop of the skeletonised astronaut is actually really good! At least, I think it is. It manages to feel old, decrepit, mouldy, and like it’s been there for centuries, and the reveal, I’m certain, would have shocked me when I first saw the episode all those years ago. It’s a well-executed moment, suitably creepy and intense for a mystery story, and it sees The Royale take a surprisingly dark twist. Yes, the away team has been trapped for a while, and yes, we know that, back on the ship, there are problems with communication. But this is the first time, really, after meeting some fairly whimsical characters and seeing a cheesy side-story right out of a mid-century soap opera, that the crew feels in danger. And if this prop had looked a lot worse… well, that feeling wouldn’t have been as strong.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing a skeleton — The skeleton.

Worf’s comment about how dying in one’s sleep is “terrible” didn’t pass unnoticed – a subtle nod to how Klingons view such things. He then goes on to uncover the dead man’s NASA flight suit as Data explains that the astronaut – Colonel Richey – has been dead for almost three centuries. The Enterprise is able to get back in touch at this point, conveniently allowing Riker to ask them to search for details of Colonel Richey’s identity, while Worf uncovers the novel Hotel Royale – a ficticious book created for this episode.

I like the flight suit, and how it feels comparable to NASA’s spacesuits of the Space Shuttle era. Riker’s comment about the 52-star American flag indicating a time period was also interesting; it continues Star Trek’s theme of depicting a positive future for the United States in particular! I wonder which two new states those stars are meant to represent? Puerto Rico, perhaps, and Washington, DC? Those are the two most-likely candidates for statehood right now, I believe!

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing the flight suit — The flight suit with its flag and mission patches.

As an aside, the remastered version of the episode contains one major difference from the original, and it’s at this moment. The original mission patch on Colonel Richey’s flight suit was much more basic; an Apollo 17 patch with the name scrubbed off. The remaster updates this, giving the patch a unique design, which I think looks a lot better – and certainly feels a bit more realistic for a mission of this type. It’s only seen briefly, but it is seen in close-up, so I definitely think it was worth updating it when The Next Generation went through the remastering process a few years ago.

After Worf discovers the novel Hotel Royale, Riker hands the book to Data to summarise it. And I’ve always loved seeing Data do these superhuman feats – reading an entire book in seconds, as in this case, just makes him feel like a unique character with special abilities. Data proceeds to explain, in brief, the plot of the book to Captain Picard and the away team, and they realise that the characters in the book are some of the people we’ve been seeing downstairs. It was a bit of a heavy-handed approach to have the characters say, out loud, things that we could’ve easily understood for ourselves, but that’s my only real criticism of this scene.

Pair of still frames from Star Trek TNG S2 The Royale showing Data explaining the novel — Data explains the plot of the book (left) while Picard and the crew listen.

Things take a darker turn again when Worf and Riker uncover the colonel’s diary. Somehow (and it isn’t explained how, sadly), Colonel Richey pieced together that the illusory hotel was concocted by an alien that he claims was aboard his ship and killed his crewmates. The alien (or aliens), out of a sense of guilt, built the hotel for him and allowed him to live there. He then spent the next thirty-eight years trapped in the Hotel Royale, before passing away.

So now we know why the hotel exists on this barren, otherwise lifeless world! The mystery has been at least partially solved, and with the exception of a bit of heavy-handedness in some of the dialogue, this worked pretty well. The mystery connects to Star Trek’s fictionalised past – the 21st Century – and to a race of aliens who appear to have inadvertently caused the deaths of the other NASA crew. And the book being misinterpreted as a kind of almost religious text by the aliens would be funny… if it wasn’t so dark. Colonel Richey’s final words, that he would “welcome death,” really hammer home that much darker tone for this aspect of the story.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Data and Riker — Data and Riker with the diary.

The next scene aboard the Enterprise gives us Dr Pulaski’s only lines in the episode. The crew come up with a plan – spearheaded by Geordi – to “slice” into the forcefield around the hotel, even though doing so would cause the frozen atmosphere of Theta VIII to rush in. If the away team couldn’t be beamed out in time, Dr Pulaski opines that, in theory, they could be resuscitated after being flash-frozen.

I like Dr Pulaski, and one of my biggest Star Trek “what-if” questions is what The Next Generation and the rest of the franchise might’ve looked like had she stuck around. Her role in The Royale is relatively minor, but I daresay it’s no coincidence that her presence in the first episodes I can remember watching is a big part of why I find her to be such a fascinating character. Dr Crusher’s return in Season 3 was welcomed by fans (and the cast) at the time, of course, and we’ve since seen different things from her. But Dr Pulaski is a unique character; her conflicts with characters like Data and her occasionally standoffish manner contrast in a fun way with other members of the crew.

If you’re interested to read more about Dr Pulaski, click or tap here to check out my thoughts on her character.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Dr Pulaski — Dr Pulaski doesn’t play a big role in this episode.

As the away team splits up, Picard and Counsellor Troi begin to look over the text of Hotel Royale. I absolutely *adore* Picard’s disgusted expression on reading the opening line: “It was a dark and stormy night.” Somehow, that line has become a byword for poor-quality writing, often criticised and parodied, and its use here really emphasises the low-quality nature of this fictitious book. Picard, who had been discussing complex mathematics and high-brow philosophy with Riker at the start of the episode, is forced to engage with a text he clearly detests – and it’s kind of funny.

Back on the casino floor, Data attempts to get “Texas” to leave the hotel, surmising that he may be trapped within its walls, too. But the blackjack game is still going, and Texas shows off a much creepier side, as he tries to leverage Vanessa’s losing streak to… well, you can figure out the rest. It’s a turn for this previously comedic character to end up looking controlling, manipulative, sexually aggressive, and creepy, but it fits with the tone of the kind of novel Hotel Royale purports to be.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Vanessa and "Texas" — Vanessa and Texas.

As Riker and Worf reconvene to share that they found “nothing” of consequence to aid in their escape, we get another of the pulpy scenes with the bellhop. It starts with the assistant manager, as the TV drama-style music swells, and leads into the arrival of Mickey D: the gangster at the heart of the novel.

The only part about this I didn’t really like was the action cutting between the planet and Picard, in his Ready-Room, who could apparently hear everything going on through the comm channel. Picard, for me, didn’t seem to take it as seriously as he perhaps should’ve; in-universe, the characters don’t know how dangerous the situation is, and we know that even holograms can kill if they malfunction. There’s no reason to assume that, just because this is a low-quality story, Riker and the away team will be safe – Mickey D could, perhaps, have harmed them if they’d got caught up in the middle of it. It was just a bit… tonally weird, I suppose. And cutting away from the actual scene to watch someone listening to it, only to make yet another comment on the quality of the writing? It just didn’t add a lot to the episode.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Mickey D — Mickey D arrives.

The conflict between Mickey D and the bellboy, over a girl named Rita, escalates, despite the assistant manager’s attempts to defuse the situation, and the two seem to be heading outside for a confrontation. However, Mickey D shoots the bellboy in the back, quips about Rita not being worth dying over, and then departs.

Mickey D is a completely one-dimensional character – but in a self-aware way. He’s a typical “Vegas gangster” of this time period, with his mannerisms, style of dress, and everything made out to emphasise that. His one big action – shooting a young man in the back – also hammers home that this is a man who doesn’t play fair. I’d never say he’s a great or even good character (he gets far too little screen time for that), but he fills a role in this story in a way that makes sense, and he advances the plot both within Hotel Royale’s fictional story, and for the away team down on Theta VIII. They witness the shooting (complete with over-acting and no visible injuries or wounds), and that kick-starts the final act of the episode.

A behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek TNG S2 showing Michael Dorn and a guest star — Michael Dorn (right) with guest star Leo Garcia, who played the bellboy.

Riker and Worf watch Mickey D walking out of the hotel, surprised that he’s able to leave while they remain trapped. This leads to a conversation with Captain Picard, who recounts the scene from the book. Riker then asks how the book ends – and after learning that “foreign investors” buy out the hotel, he comes up with a plan for the away team to *become* the foreign investors. This was hinted at, by the way, in their first interaction with the assistant manager shortly after their arrival.

One thing that’s great about this moment is how the typical TNG music sting starts to play, then blends into the TV drama jazz music that had defined the scenes recounting the pulpy Hotel Royale story. I just think it’s really creative; a way to kind of symbolise that these two disconnected halves of the episode’s story are going to come together. And, for the first time since arriving, Riker and the away team now have a plan to get back to the Enterprise-D.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Worf and Riker — The music swells… and Riker is a man with a plan.

The away team re-encounters “Texas” and Vanessa, this time at the craps table, and begin their scheme to win enough money gambling to buy out the hotel and finish the story, hopefully allowing them to escape. Data’s unique skillset once again proves invaluable; he’s able to “fix” the dice to make sure they win, much to Texas and Vanessa’s enjoyment.

We get a tiny sub-plot with “Texas” trying to bet against Data, and taking it personally when he loses. It was of some interest, especially given his earlier creepy behaviour, and seeing him taken down a few pegs is definitely satisfying. But he isn’t a major antagonist, and this feels like little more than a minor stumbling-block on the way to finishing the story.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing a craps game — The craps game.

What I love about this sequence is how into character both Data and Riker get. Data adopts mid-century gambling mannerisms and terminology, despite not quite understanding all of it, and his line “baby needs a new pair of shoes” is delivered in a totally deadpan way that *only* Brent Spiner could ever manage! It’s really funny, really cute, and it’s one of the many reasons why I fell in love with Data way back when. He’s just such a fun, charming character, and every time he tries act “more human” he does it so earnestly and in such a fun way that it’s impossible not to root for him.

You know the rest of the story: thanks to Data’s interference, they win over and over at craps, breaking the bank in the process. They then announce they’re buying the hotel, to the surprise and gratitude of the assistant manager, and spread the rest of their winnings around. Even “Texas” gets to benefit, remaining at the craps table with Data’s loaded dice.

I think we’re meant to understand that, because the away team was believed to be the trio of “foreign investors,” they couldn’t leave the hotel until they’d completed their role in the story. Whether Colonel Richey was also assigned that role by the aliens who created the illusion isn’t clear, though, and the episode ends with the core mystery solved – but still some unanswered questions.

Back in the Ready-Room, Picard and Riker recall Fermat’s last theorem, and suggest that some of the mysteries of Colonel Richey’s story, and the hotel on Theta VIII, may simply never be solved. And while that may seem unsatisfying (which, in a way, it is), it’s also an interesting take on space exploration and Starfleet’s mission, isn’t it? We’re used to our heroes turning up at a planet, solving a puzzle or unravelling every aspect of a mystery, and warping away to a new adventure. But space… well, it isn’t always easy to understand. Who were these aliens? Why did they choose that book for Colonel Richey? What went wrong in their encounter with humanity – and what were they even trying to do? Why strand Colonel Richey on Theta VIII – is the planet their homeworld? Why not attempt to make contact with the Enterprise-D if that’s the case? So many questions left unanswered… but the lack of an answer is kind of the point.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing Picard — Picard and Riker are left with unanswered questions as the Enterprise prepares to leave orbit.

So that was The Royale! Thanks for joining me on this re-watch of the episode.

I had a blast stepping back in time some thirty-five years to the episode that first turned me into a Trekkie, and I hope it was a bit of fun to come along for the ride with me. I adore this story, despite its low-budget sets, hammy acting, and kind of silly premise – and I hope that came across! As a kid, I was absolutely transfixed by this story, and desperately keen to go on more adventures with Riker, Data, Worf, and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise-D. From this moment on, I was a regular viewer of The Next Generation, watching the rest of Season 2, then Season 3, and going back to earlier episodes from Season 1 when they were re-broadcast.

Star Trek became a pretty big part of my life from then on. As I navigated school and social life, and especially as I grew into adolescence and attended seondary school, it became both a source of joy and, sometimes, an escape from the real world. I loved going on these adventures with the crew, and when TNG’s two spin-offs (Deep Space Nine and Voyager) came to the UK, I watched those religiously, too. And I may never have started to do so were it not for The Royale.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing the Enterprise-D and Theta VIII — The Enterprise-D in orbit of Theta VIII.

In Star Trek’s big sixtieth anniversary year, I thought it was fun to return to my own origins as a Trekkie, and with today being the thirty-fifth anniversary of The Royale’s UK premiere… well, it all just sort of fell into place!

It’s impossible for me to be in any way “objective” when dealing with an episode like this, so I hope that didn’t impact your enjoyment of this re-watch. I wanted to go back to The Royale not to criticise it or pick it apart – though I daresay there’s been some of that – but really to celebrate what it means to me personally, and to my journey into the Star Trek fan community. Hopefully that positivity came across, anyway.

It’s been a long time since June 1991, and a lot has changed. But my love of Star Trek – and of The Royale – hasn’t diminished. Star Trek has been a near-constant presence in my life since this moment, even when new episodes and films weren’t being aired, and without it… well, I probably wouldn’t be here running a small website! I really don’t know where I’d be without this wonderful franchise, to tell you the truth.

Still frame from Star Trek TNG The Royale showing the away team beaming out — The away team beams back to the ship.

If you liked this format and want more re-watches of older Star Trek episodes, I have several here on the website. My most recent was Where No Man Has Gone Before – The Original Series’ second pilot. You can find that piece by clicking or tapping here. Earlier this year, I also took a look at The First Duty from The Next Generation’s fifth season. Click or tap here to check that out. And if you visit my dedicated The Next Generation webpage, you can find all of my commentary and other TNG episode re-watches. Click or tap here to head there.

Later this year, we’ve got Strange New Worlds’ fourth season to come, and I plan to write episode reviews for that, so I hope you’ll join me for some of those. And as the sixtieth anniversary gets closer, I have a few other ideas for articles and episode re-watches that I hope I’ll be able to find time for.

Thanks for reading, and as always… Live Long and Prosper, friends!

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the service is available, and is also available to buy on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including The Next Generation and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Skydance/Paramount. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Picard Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 6: The Bounty

Tue 28.03.23Wed 29.03.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Discovery.

The Bounty feels like an episode that was made for fans. More than any other episode of Picard – at least since Season 1’s Nepenthe – I felt that the writers were leaning as heavily as they could into the lore and history of the Star Trek franchise, plucking some of those nostalgic chords for no other reason than to harken back to classic episodes, films, and stories that Trekkies will remember with fondness. There were some incredibly powerful emotional moments as a result, and I will never tire of seeing close-up shots of some of the franchise’s most beautiful starships!

Despite that, however, The Bounty was an imperfect outing overall – an episode with a couple of story beats that felt incomplete or just abrupt, and that resurrected a character who I felt had been appropriately and perfectly laid to rest. Moments of nostalgia spread throughout The Bounty felt absolutely magical… for the most part. But I fear this side of things was overdone and may have tried to carry the episode just a little too far. There will be repercussions for the story as a whole as the second half of the season – and the final act of Picard – gets underway.

Let’s talk first about something that had been teased in pre-season trailers and had got a lot of Trekkies chattering excitedly: the “return” of Professor Moriarty. For me, the way this ultimately came across in The Bounty was a let-down; a textbook example of how not to over-hype a character. Moriarty, in my view, should never have appeared in trailers and marketing material for two reasons. Firstly, his cameo here was incredibly brief, with Moriarty getting only a couple of lines and one very short moment of action. Secondly, and perhaps most significantly, this isn’t actually Moriarty.

This version of Moriarty was revealed to be a projection; an illusion created from the decaying remnants of Data’s memories. And that’s totally fine in the context of the story. Had I gone into the episode not expecting to see Moriarty nor knowing he was going to be included in the season, I’d have almost certainly been surprised and impressed. But the build-up to Moriarty’s return had been a significant moment in pre-season trailers going back several months… and seen through that lens, I felt more than a little let down – as if the promised return was nothing more than a bait-and-switch.

Moriarty’s cameo in *The Bounty* was minor.

Ro Laren’s surprise return to Star Trek last week had been kept secret – and it worked phenomenally well as a result. I can’t help but feel that Daniel Davis’ return as Moriarty should have been treated the same way, as keeping Moriarty out of pre-season trailers would have made his return feel impactful rather than underwhelming. There was scope to do more with Moriarty – and having wondered for months why he might be involved and what kind of a role he could play… I just feel like this cameo was over-hyped. Partly that’s my own fault… but partly it’s Paramount’s marketing, which deliberately over-inflated Moriarty’s role in pre-season trailers.

Trying to assess this inclusion on its own merit, though, I think it would’ve been a lot of fun were it not for being basically spoiled ahead of time. Visiting a black site like Daystrom Station only to encounter a dangerous foe from the past, having to figure out what was going on and how to defeat him, while at the same time he’s unable to be harmed… it was a setup that should have been tense and exciting, while at the same time being a great deal of fun to welcome back a character that I don’t think anyone could’ve truly expected. But unfortunately it didn’t stick the landing – and that’s all because this surprise was spoiled by pre-season trailers.

Moriarty’s return had been spoiled by pre-season trailers.

Let’s get all of the disappointments out of the way up front and look at another let-down! I always like to caveat these particular kinds of criticisms by noting that Paramount doesn’t have unlimited financial resources, and that it isn’t fair to compare Star Trek to productions from the likes of Disney or HBO that have significantly more money to play with. But even with that caveat… I felt that there was a scene or sequence that was sorely missing from The Bounty.

Jack Crusher and Sidney La Forge teamed up to “borrow” a cloaking device from the titular Bounty – the Klingon Bird-of-Prey used by Captain Kirk and co. during the events of The Voyage Home. But this daring heist took place entirely off-screen… and I just feel disappointed by that.

Even with the caveat that Paramount doesn’t have unlimited money, let’s consider this story beat and see how it could’ve played out. First up, there are only two characters involved, which obviously makes it a lot more manageable from a practical point of view. Secondly, it wouldn’t necessarily have required the construction of multiple sets. Between the AR wall (which I know is in Toronto, not California where Picard is produced) and pre-existing sets, surely it must’ve been possible to recreate a small portion of a Bird-of-Prey – even if it wasn’t the bridge. Just a corridor or something where we could’ve seen Jack and Sidney beaming aboard. Alternatively, the episode could’ve seen Jack and Sidney take the USS Defiant’s cloaking device, and a small part of that ship could’ve been created.

Although some creative(ish) storytelling and writing tried to present this aspect of the story as a bit of a surprise, it was actually pretty clear what Jack hoped to do, and even though I know we don’t always need to see every moment unfold in order for a story to be entertaining… we absolutely could have in this instance. In an episode that was already leaning heavily on the crutch of nostalgia, think how much fun it could have been if we’d actually been able to visit one of the ships at the museum instead of just seeing their recreated CGI husks.

So I’m afraid to say that this aspect of The Bounty feels like it has a pretty glaring omission.

Jack formulated a plan… but his plan took place entirely off-screen.

I can’t wait any longer to talk about Data! This is a huge point, not just for Season 3 and potentially not only for Picard, either, but for Star Trek as a whole. The resurrection of seemingly-dead characters is something the franchise has done before – and done quite well, at least in some instances. Technobabble can be used to excuse and justify these things in a sci-fi setting, so from a technical standpoint there really isn’t much to say about the whole “Data, Lore, B4, and other androids are all stuck inside the same ‘golem’ body” idea that The Bounty introduced. I think it clears the bar from that point of view.

But I can’t forgive it as a narrative point.

One of the few highlights of the two-part Season 1 finale was how poignant and beautiful the scenes between Picard and Data were. Eighteen years after Data’s death in Nemesis hadn’t really been given a sufficiently emotional payoff, Et in Arcadia Ego righted that wrong, and Data was finally laid to rest as Picard entered the digital afterlife. Those scenes did so much to elevate what was an otherwise disappointing finale – but more than that, they felt final and conclusive; a definitive but also appropriate end for a character we first met way back in 1987.

Data’s resurrection is a difficult storyline to get behind.

By allowing Data to permanently die, Picard helped him achieve his lifelong goal of becoming more human – because what could possibly be more human, for an artificial life-form who doesn’t age, than dying? This was one of the most impactful moments in all of Season 1 for me, and seeing Data come to the definitive end of his life, even as Picard was being reborn in a new body, went a long way to making the journey feel worthwhile.

The Bounty has now undermined and even overwritten that powerful emotional moment – and I fear that it has no reason for doing so other than the selfish desire of some of the show’s producers to play with the character of Data once more. I feel like I’m watching children playing with action figures; sure, Data was “dead,” but that doesn’t matter now. Pretend it didn’t happen, pick up the doll, and start playing a new game.

He even kind of resembles an action figure in a box…

One of my biggest concerns going into Season 3 – and really going back a whole year to the announcement of these actors returning – is that the story would end up feeling not only tacked-on and unnecessary, but like a childish mess. Bringing back these characters has to serve a purpose, but it also has to make narrative sense within a long-established world. More than that, it has to feel like it’s being done for more than just nakedly commercialised nostalgia – and the resurrection of Data, who had been permanently killed off twice, has crossed that line for me.

As we saw in both Seasons 1 and 2, there are ways to include Brent Spiner – if that had been deemed necessary – without resurrecting the character of Data. Pre-season trailers seemed to indicate that Spiner would be playing Lore, and while I wasn’t wild about that as I’ve never been a huge Lore fan, it seemed like a passable compromise if the show’s producers wanted to get as close as possible to a TNG reunion.

I have no doubt that there will be some kind of narrative payoff to Data being “back,” and I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that it will be something I find at least bearable. But based on what we got in The Bounty, I’m sceptical. This resurrection feels like it serves two purposes: the desire of the showrunner and writers to play with their favourite action figures, and the commercial wishes of Paramount as it hopes to offset some of its huge losses by nakedly playing the nostalgia card. Neither excuse, quite frankly, is good enough – and neither comes close to justifying a pretty clunky technobabble explanation for resurrecting this long-dead character.

I keep thinking back to The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock as a point of comparison, because I think that may be another factor in Data’s resurrection here; it’s intended to mirror Spock’s. But in that story, Spock’s resurrection had been teed up at the end of The Wrath of Khan in a scene that showed Spock’s coffin lying, undamaged, on the surface of the Genesis Planet. Not only that, but these two stories were told one after the other. Data’s death happened back in 2002 – and his supposedly final end came more than a full season ago. While there are echoes of the Spock story here… that one feels a lot stronger, and seems to have been written with more of a sense of purpose. Data’s story, in contrast, feels muddled and disjointed; the consequence of different writers and writing teams having fundamentally contradictory ideas for where to take the character – and how and even whether to end his life.

A glimpse behind-the-scenes during *The Bounty’*s production.

Star Trek can successfully pull off a death-and-rebirth narrative, so I don’t think that is a problem in and of itself. We got one such example involving Jean-Luc Picard in the Season 1 finale of Picard – and another even more recently with Book at the end of Discovery’s fourth season. But here, with Data, having seen him so beautifully and sensitively laid to rest in Season 1, and with his death in Nemesis having come more than twenty years ago… it doesn’t work, at least not for me.

Rather than feeling like Spock’s rebirth, or even Picard’s in Season 1, Data’s resurrection reminds me a lot more of Elnor’s, which came at the very end of Season 2. Elnor was, like Data, definitively dead. And like Data, his death had a significant emotional impact. Raffi’s entire Season 2 storyline saw her grieving and coming to terms with his death – and that storyline was, for much of the season, one of the few that seemed to be working. Elnor’s last-second resurrection undid all of that, damaged the overall narrative of the season, felt unearned, unnecessary, and just plain stupid. And many of those same points – particularly those about undermining an emotional storyline and feeling ultimately unnecessary – are present here as well.

As much fun as it could be to have Data back and to get reunions with Geordi, Picard, and the rest of the crew, I’m struggling with this storyline.

Though it may have been intended to echo Spock’s rebirth from *The Search for Spock*… Data’s resurrection didn’t work anywhere near as well.

Data did tell us something very interesting, though: the “real” theft from Daystrom Station that the rogue changelings wanted to cover up was that of Jean-Luc Picard’s corpse. Precisely why Section 31 wanted to keep Picard’s body, and what they might’ve done with it for the past couple of years, wasn’t made clear… and that’s already kind of odd, when you think about it. Could there be a reason why Picard’s and Kirk’s bodies were both kept at Daystrom Station? Perhaps something connected to the Nexus or the events of Generations?

One thing that we learned from The Bounty that Picard and Jack have in common is a diagnosis of Irumodic syndrome. Given that the rogue changelings are also chasing after him, perhaps that has something to do with it – but we’ll save the speculation for my next theory post. Suffice to say it was an interesting development, and one that brings the conspiracy several steps closer to Picard himself.

Apparently the rogue changelings have absconded with Picard’s corpse.

But all of that came at the end of the episode, and there were plenty of fun or at least interesting moments before we reached those revelations. As I said, The Bounty really feels like an episode that was made for fans – or at least that had moments of pure fan-service that I absolutely lapped up.

Visiting the Fleet Museum was an opportunity to show off some beautiful CGI recreations of some of Star Trek’s most well-known ships. The USS Defiant, the Enterprise-A, and of course the titular Bounty were all present. Seven of Nine and Jack taking a closer look at the USS Voyager was an especially sweet moment, and several familiar musical stings accompanied these ships as they were shown on screen. I adore much of the music of Star Trek – especially the films from the ’80s and the shows of the ’90s – so hearing these short clips was enough, as Scotty once said, to bring a tear to my eye.

This sequence was a perfect “made for the fans” moment. It was a total nostalgia overload, but one that made sense in the context of the story and that was just the right length. Given what we’ve just been talking about, there must’ve been a temptation to drag this out and perhaps go overboard with the nostalgia plays, talking about each ship in more detail. But here, less was more – and the sequence, which only lasted about three minutes, came across beautifully as a result.

Since reappearing as the Titan’s second-in-command, I hadn’t really been blown away by Seven of Nine’s inclusion in the story of Season 3 so far. She served a narrative function on a couple of occasions – by rerouting the Titan against Captain Shaw’s orders and by identifying the first changeling infiltrator by using her real name – but she hadn’t had that much to say, nor many scenes in which she took centre-stage. Pairing her up with Jack on this occasion was fun – and we got to see how two individuals who are very different from one another, yet have a connection as Starfleet “outsiders,” were able to find some common ground.

Seven became emotional when thinking back to her time aboard the USS Voyager.

Seven’s line to Jack about the USS Voyager having been her home was incredibly touching, and it’s great to see Picard embracing the legacy of Voyager in such an overt way. I’ve said this before going all the way back to Season 1, but Seven’s transformation has been wonderful to see and more than a little cathartic. Seeing her in uniform, geeking out about starship designs with Jack, was another example of this.

Sticking with Jack, I spoke last week about how his hallucinatory experiences were something that hit close to home for me, and I don’t really want to get into all of that again; it isn’t an easy thing to think about or talk too much about! But suffice to say that I’m convinced that there must be more to what’s going on with Jack than simply “Irumodic syndrome” – though the connection between Jack’s hallucinations and the genetic disease that affected Picard was handled well in the story.

Jack’s glowing red eyes from a couple of episodes ago would seem to serve as the best argument for there being more to this story than an illness, as would Jack’s out-of-nowhere combat prowess last week. And that’s before we account for the changelings’ desire to capture him… for some reason. We’ll go into specific ideas about where Jack’s story could go in my next theory update, but for now I think it’s enough to say that there’s more going on here than we’re aware of at this juncture.

I actually really liked Jack in The Bounty. His conversations with both Picard and Seven were great, but for me his standout scenes actually came with Sidney La Forge, who was also excellent in this episode. Like their parents before them, they make a great team – and who knows, maybe romance could be in their future!

Sticking with the La Forge family, I think we’ll briefly talk about Geordi’s other daughter. And “briefly” is all we’ll need, because unfortunately Alandra La Forge didn’t get much to say or do in this episode. There’s potential in the “sibling rivalry” idea that Sidney and Alandra seemed, at first, to embody – but if that’s going to be basically dumped now that the girls are both firmly on the same team… without wanting to be unkind, I just don’t see where Alandra is going to fit.

Sidney La Forge got a genuinely great storyline this week as she confronted her father for both his unwillingness to help with the mission at hand and, by extension, for favouring her sister as she was more inclined toward engineering. Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, who plays Sidney, absolutely excelled in the scene with the far more experienced LeVar Burton, and genuinely sold me on this family argument. Most of us can relate, in some way I daresay, to having this kind of conversation with a parent or relative, and I was beyond impressed with the performance that she gave.

For the first time in the season so far, Sidney got a lot to do.

As for Geordi himself, I can see some fans potentially taking umbrage with the idea that he’d be unwilling to help Picard, or that he’d be so fearful of repercussions that he’d put his family first. It isn’t necessarily a fun story for Geordi, nor is it one that presents him in the best or most heroic, selfless way. But what I’d say in defence of this story is that it’s very human, and is again something that feels incredibly relatable.

One of the themes of Season 3 that we’ve seen through Picard’s conversations with Dr Crusher and Captain Shaw in particular is the idea that Picard himself is a kind of maelstrom; a figure around whom danger, disaster, war, and even death have a tendency to swirl and coalesce. Geordi’s initial reluctance to throw himself and his family into another Picard adventure is a continuation of this theme – and it fits not only with what’s been established before, but with what we’ve seen of Picard over the course of some thirty-five years.

Geordi was initially reluctant to join Picard’s mission.

Because past iterations of Star Trek were primarily episodic affairs, the franchise hasn’t always been able to take a look at some of the longer-term consequences of the adventures and misadventures that some of its key characters have had. There have been attempts to do so: episodes like Family in The Next Generation, for example, or Worf’s scenes with Ezri Dax in Deep Space Nine’s seventh season. But until Discovery and Picard came along, these were limited to a few episodes or character arcs, and didn’t get to go into as much detail.

Parts of Picard haven’t gotten this quite right, particularly in the show’s lacklustre second season. But here, the idea that even some of Picard’s closest friends would struggle to rejoin his cause because of the danger they know it’ll put them in feels surprisingly natural. Having worked with Jean-Luc Picard for fifteen years or more, Geordi saw first-hand the danger many of Picard’s missions posed, and wanting to keep his children away from that is a perfectly valid and understandable reaction – even if we may not like or agree with it on the surface!

Geordi felt that teaming up with Picard would endanger his family.

There was a danger that this part of the story could’ve felt like an artificial speedbump; a delay to slow down the Titan’s progress so other storylines could unfold at Daystrom Station or with the heist at the Fleet Museum. And part of me wants to call it that – to say that Geordi’s rather abrupt turnaround after an entire episode of dragging his feet makes the whole thing redundant. But actually, having had some time to think about it, the positives outweigh the negatives and Geordi’s storyline not only made narrative sense, but played into key themes that have been running for the duration of the season so far.

It isn’t always fun to see an heroic character behaving in a more rational, self-preserving, and more human way. And I get that – Geordi doesn’t feel like the selfless hero for much of The Bounty. But if every main character was totally virtuous, selfless, and pure of heart… well, that would make for a pretty bland and one-dimensional story, wouldn’t it? Geordi has family considerations here, and the idea of wanting to keep one’s children safe – even if that means risking some big, nefarious scheme being able to unfold… it’s relatable and understandable.

Geordi was very relatable in *The Bounty*.

Although we’ve had some wonderful adventures and powerful emotional moments with all of these characters over the years, here in Picard is where we’re seeing them at the most human and relatable that they’ve ever been – and Geordi encapsulated that feeling for me in The Bounty. I’d defend his characterisation here as not straying from his presentation in The Next Generation – but rather being an evolution of it, showing how conflicted he feels between the fear he has for his family’s safety and his loyalty to Picard and desire to help.

It almost goes without saying that LeVar Burton nailed this complex presentation. It was always going to be wonderful to welcome him back to Star Trek after such a long absence – but to see such a masterful and nuanced performance from the veteran actor was truly astonishing. The character of Geordi La Forge was cast perfectly in 1987 – and as one of the stars of Roots, LeVar Burton was one of the best-known actors in the cast as The Next Generation entered production on its first season. Geordi got some great spotlight episodes across The Next Generation’s run – The Enemy, I Borg, The Next Phase, and Relics all being examples that jump to mind. But here, in The Bounty, we really got to see what LeVar Burton can do with this wonderful character. And it was riveting.

LeVar Burton gave an outstanding performance and was a joy to watch.

Geordi’s inclusion in the story was also an opportunity for the rather superfluous Captain Shaw to have a fun and light-hearted scene. Having set up Shaw as a former engineer a couple of episodes back, that backstory got a truly cute payoff in The Bounty as the Titan’s captain found himself tongue-tied and starstruck when coming face to face with one of his engineering heroes. I felt echoes of Lower Decks’ protagonist Boimler in the way Shaw reacted to Geordi – and it was a nice change of pace for a character who’s been standoffish.

However, I maintain that the story of Season 3 is not well-served by having so many senior officers concentrated aboard the Titan. Riker’s (surely temporary) absence may have alleviated that for now, but the Titan is still blessed with an Admiral, at least one Captain, and now a Commodore as well. Captain Shaw repeatedly draws the short straw – understandably, perhaps. But as we saw yet again this week, big decisions aboard his ship are taken without much input from him.

Here’s a question to ponder: are there too many changelings in the plot?

That might sound silly given that the rogue changelings are our main adversaries, but hear me out. Changelings are, if you think about it, kind of overpowered from a narrative standpoint – and their new ability to mimic humanoids in far more detail than ever before has only increased their relative power. We’re at a point in the story where it’s difficult to know who is and isn’t a changeling – and that could make for an exciting and tense mystery… or a frustrating experience!

Past stories involving changeling infiltrators were more cautious, and I mentioned last time that the Deep Space Nine duology Homefront and Paradise Lost made sure to include the detail that there were only four active changeling infiltrators. If, as Ro Laren told us, Starfleet is compromised and there may be multiple changelings aboard many ships in the fleet, it risks making the story hard to follow, and throwing an uncomfortable cloud of suspicion over practically every character arc and plot point. I don’t think we’re at a stage yet where it’s a huge problem… but it could make the story difficult to follow and needs to be handled with a degree of care.

We aren’t always going to be able to know who is and isn’t a changeling in a story like this one…

That only leaves us with the away mission to Daystrom Station. It was fantastic to see Riker and Worf teaming up for an away mission once again! Worf was often one of Riker’s go-to officers when putting together an away team during their adventures aboard the Enterprise-D, so it felt incredibly appropriate and fitting for them to work together again on this occasion.

Raffi was an interesting inclusion here, and after she and Worf had worked over the past few episodes to uncover the Daystrom connection, it made sense for her to join the mission along with them. But after they accessed the chamber where Data was being held, Raffi kind of felt like a bit of an unnecessary addition. She didn’t have the connection to Data, nor the history with him that Riker and Worf had, to give her much to say, and the few lines she got at this point felt more like exposition than anything else.

Raffi’s reunion with Seven of Nine was also cut short, and I hope it’s something we’ll see more of before the season ends. As disappointing as Season 2 was, and in spite of the problems Raffi’s storyline ran into in the final episode, the developing relationship between Seven and Raffi was one of the season’s stronger storylines. It humanises both characters, gives each of them something to fight for and reach for, and if there is to be any kind of “Captain Seven” show in Star Trek’s future, this relationship, one way or another, will be part of it. With both characters aboard the Titan, I hope there’ll be time in the remaining episodes to reunite Seven and Raffi for a scene or two.

There are already breakdowns and lists of all of the miscellaneous objects and items that were being stored at Daystrom Station that fans have compiled, so I won’t just list all of them here! But some of these little easter eggs were great fun, and in an episode that was all about callbacks to past iterations of Star Trek, this kind of storage facility was a great way to include many smaller references. I doubt very much that any of the stored items at Daystrom Station will prove to be important to the plot, but it was a cute way for Picard to pay homage to characters and stories from across the franchise’s 850+ episodes and films.

Captain Kirk’s body is apparently stored at Daystrom Station too.

The away mission to Daystrom Station felt tense and exciting – but the sets used for the station were, once again, seriously under-lit and far too dark. This has been a problem that’s been running all season long, but the especially dark corridors of Daystrom Station were perhaps the worst example so far. It wasn’t easy to follow all of the action as Worf, Raffi, and Riker were sneaking around and battling their way into and out of the station’s central chamber.

The fight sequences themselves, despite the aforementioned lighting problem, were decent, though. I genuinely felt that Riker was in danger as he raced off to buy time for the others to escape – and that’s really the first time so far this season that Picard has managed to give me that feeling. After Ro’s death the stakes have been raised significantly, and as I said before the season aired, it’s possible that not all of our heroes will make it to the end in one piece! Riker escaped… this time. But it was touch-and-go for a minute there in an incredibly tense and well-performed fight sequence.

I confess that Vadic being a changeling is still something I’m getting to grips with. I said last time that I interpreted her scene with Floaty McFloatface as Vadic being a humanoid who had some kind of symbiotic relationship with a changeling… but it seems, instead, that she’s somehow two changelings in one body? The mechanics of it bug me, at least from an in-universe perspective. We know that changelings can communicate by linking, and we’ve seen in Picard that they also seem to have developed a clicking language of their own – so why does Vadic physically cut Floaty McFloatface off of herself and have a chat with them in English? Obviously the answer is “to make it a more interesting story.” But that isn’t always a satisfying explanation!

But still, we got absolute, indisputable proof this week that Vadic is a changeling. I’m excited to see her finally being able to interact with someone other than her silent crew and Floaty McFloatface, and there’s definitely potential in her interrogations of Riker and Troi – assuming it is the real Troi! I’m a tad disappointed, however, that Vadic now doesn’t seem to have any personal connection to Picard. Something may yet be revealed in that regard, but if she’s a changeling it would seem to rule it out.

Vadic is clearly based on characters like Khan, and that kind of villain can be truly delicious to watch. But so far, Vadic hasn’t managed to capture much of that feeling for me. Her over-the-top performance actually feels out of place right now, and while I still want to see her defeated and her plan stopped, on a personal level I think there’s a disconnect between Vadic and the audience. Six episodes in and we’ve only had a few short moments with her, we’ve already seen her defeated once, and her over-the-top characterisation feels more like it’s treading water than going anywhere.

But now that she’s captured and assaulted Riker, perhaps we’ll finally start to get some of that burning, passionate dislike that Vadic hasn’t managed to garner so far. I certainly hope so! A villain so maniacal should be able to drum up that sort of a reaction – and now that she’s captured not just one but perhaps two of our heroes… there’s the potential, at least, for an improvement on the villainous side of the season.

So I think I’ve touched on all of the points I had in my notes for this outing. The Bounty was a beautiful, nostalgic romp through Star Trek’s past in more ways than one… but an episode that didn’t stick the landing on a couple of key points. It can be difficult to fairly judge these mid-season episodes, though, until we know how character arcs and storylines that have been set up will ultimately be paid off – something I’m especially aware of in Picard, given the way Seasons 1 and 2 both ended. So perhaps we’ll be able to look back at some elements of The Bounty a little more kindly in retrospect.

With Troi, Geordi, and the Data-Lore-Soong-B4 golem now in the picture, the cast is complete and the reunion has finally happened. Was the tail end of the sixth part of a ten-episode season the right moment… or should most of the rest of the characters have gotten back together sooner? I guess that’s another point where only time will tell!

There are four episodes left for this story to come to an explosive and exciting conclusion – and it feels as if most of the pieces are now in play. In spite of The Bounty’s shortcomings, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

A few scattered final thoughts:

For such an important facility, it’s kind of silly that Daystrom Station isn’t fully staffed and well-guarded – especially considering it’s already been attacked and robbed once.
What could Section 31 possibly want with Kirk’s dead body? And what is “Project Phoenix?”
This is the first mention of Section 31 in Picard – could that be a hint at a resurrection of the Section 31 series that’s been languishing in development hell?
I’d have given anything to see Picard and the crew beam aboard the Enterprise-A…
Geordi was very concerned about his kids… but was perfectly fine with ditching his wife!
Including a sequence from Encounter at Farpoint – and finding a way to make it relevant to the story – was incredibly sweet.

Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in the United States and other countries and territories where the service is available, and on Amazon Prime Video in the UK and around the world. The Star Trek franchise – including Picard and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Picard Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 3: Seventeen Seconds

Mon 06.03.23Mon 06.03.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Wrath of Khan, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Discovery.

For the first time since the beginning of Season 2, I had a genuinely wonderful time with Star Trek: Picard. This week’s episode, Seventeen Seconds, had none of the pacing concerns that were present earlier in the season, and practically every moment was tense, exciting, and thoroughly enjoyable. Season 3 is finally hitting its stride, and if the next seven episodes reach the high bar set by Seventeen Seconds, we’ll be able to consider it a rousing success by the time the curtain falls.

But as the dust settles on Seventeen Seconds, there’s a question burning at the back of my mind that I can’t seem to shake. And here it is: did Picard blow its big reveal too early? I mean, we’re only three episodes into a ten-episode season, and it now feels like we know who the “real” big bad of the season is going to be: the rogue changelings. Should this have been dragged out for another episode or two, perhaps with Worf and Raffi taking longer to figure things out?

Worf was instrumental in finding out what was going on.

So let’s talk about this big revelation, because it’s something that a lot of fans had been wondering about. Pre-season interviews with members of the cast and crew had promised a connection with Deep Space Nine – the one Star Trek show from the ’90s that hasn’t gotten as much attention or love from the modern franchise. This connection came with the inclusion of the changelings, seemingly a rogue faction; an offshoot of the Founders who are bent on causing havoc for Starfleet and the Federation.

This angle is a genuinely interesting one to explore – but it has to be handled delicately in more ways than one! Similar to the Borg, the Founders can be completely overpowered as a faction if the story isn’t well-balanced – and we saw how, in Deep Space Nine, the idea of changeling infiltrators was used sparingly. Too many changelings in too many positions of power will completely throw the story off-balance, and risks making a win for our heroes feel like a bit of a deus ex machina!

Also, a story bringing back the Dominion and the Founders has to be careful not to tread on the toes of the truly wonderful ending to Deep Space Nine. It was incredibly touching to hear Worf speaking so highly of Odo – his friend in the Great Link – especially in light of the sad passing of René Auberjonois in 2019. But a huge part of Odo’s story in that final chapter involved communicating to his people that peace was an option and that the Federation didn’t pose a threat, so undoing that would obviously not be my preference.

And I think that’s where the real genius of this “rogue” faction of Founders could come into play! Rather than saying the Dominion are on the march, what Worf and Raffi have uncovered seems to suggest that only some members of the changeling race are involved – that a schism has been created in the Great Link between followers of Odo’s peaceful path and those who disagreed.

In short, the line to walk here is a tricky one. It requires the story to keep Odo’s reputation intact, with the touching end to his story not being in any way damaged, undone, or overwritten. But at the same time, it has to find ways to make the rogue Founders engaging and menacing – and to give them motivation for their actions that doesn’t merely boil down to “we’re evil for the sake of it.” On the evidence presented in Seventeen Seconds, there’s reason to hope that the writers and producers have struck the right balance.

Having changelings on the loose also raises the stakes in terms of mystery! We know that Picard isn’t a changeling, and it seems safe to assume that Jack and Dr Crusher aren’t, either. But practically everyone else should fall under some degree of suspicion – and perhaps that could explain why Picard will turn to synthetic beings like Lore and Professor Moriarty: they may be the only ones he can be certain haven’t been replaced by changelings! But we’ll save the speculation for my next theory update.

I’m a huge Deep Space Nine fan – it could well be my favourite Star Trek series, all things considered. So bringing back a major faction from that series is fantastic, and it feels like Picard is leaning into Deep Space Nine in a way that modern Star Trek really hasn’t until now. Sure, there have been appearances in Lower Decks and a couple of obscure references in Discovery… but this feels like our first real opportunity to add some kind of epilogue to the Deep Space Nine story. The inclusion of Worf – who was, of course, a main character in the second half of DS9′s run – means that Picard can make these connections in a way that the series really wouldn’t have been able to before, and I guess my only real concern is that this clear fan-service won’t be too offputting or confusing for people who enjoyed The Next Generation but either haven’t seen Deep Space Nine in a while or who may have skipped it during its original run!

Making content “for fans” always carries this kind of risk. As Trekkies, you and I have almost certainly seen every episode of Deep Space Nine multiple times – even the irredeemably crap ones like Move Along Home. But Picard is trying to appeal not only to Trekkies like us, but to a more casual audience, including people who may not have liked Deep Space Nine or who didn’t stick with it for its entire run. I know several people in my personal life who are in that category – fans of The Next Generation and even of Voyager, but who for whatever reason didn’t stick with Deep Space Nine.

*Seventeen Seconds* provided just enough of a recap of the events of *Deep Space Nine* to inform viewers without getting in the way of the story.

In Seventeen Seconds, we got enough exposition and backstory to cover the basics. The show can’t spend all of its runtime bringing viewers up to speed on what happened in 175 episodes of Deep Space Nine, but what it has to do now is convey the basic points so that the story will be understandable for folks who didn’t watch or don’t remember those narrative arcs. Seventeen Seconds got this right, providing enough of an explanation without wasting too much time getting bogged down in it.

Again, Worf was well-used here. He didn’t simply drop heavy-handed exposition, he explained who the Founders were and who this rogue group may be in a brief but informative sequence. This older version of Worf, having had many off-screen experiences over the past thirty-plus years of in-universe time since we last saw him, feels like a mentor or elder statesman – precisely the kind of character to provide this kind of exposition in a way that feels natural. And natural is exactly how it felt!

We got an older, calmer presentation of Worf this week.

Sticking with returning classic characters, pre-season marketing focused on the return of the Enterprise-D’s crew for almost a year… so it’s odd, in a way, that three episodes in we still haven’t seen all of them, and that those we have seen aren’t all working together. Seventeen Seconds gave us Dr Crusher’s first significant on-screen interaction with Picard, and of course we’ve had Picard and Riker teamed up for three episodes now. But Worf is still off in his own little narrative box with Raffi, and there’s no sign of Geordi or Lore. Deanna Troi was briefly seen via a flashback, but again, that was hardly a major appearance.

One of the criticisms fans have made in the years since The Next Generation and its films were on the air is that not every character got enough to do. Everyone got spotlight episodes, of course, but genuine ensemble pieces where everyone made a significant contribution to the story were relatively uncommon, and in some episodes, characters like Dr Crusher would only get a handful of lines. Picard Season 3 was an opportunity to fix that – or at least to give these characters a final mission in which they could all collaborate and work together across a single, ten-episode-long narrative. I’m acutely aware that this is Picard’s final outing, and with basically one-third of the season already over, time is running out to make good on those pre-season promises of major roles for all of the returning characters. I’m hopeful that there will be enough time to have an enjoyable reunion with everyone – but it’s at least worth noting that it hasn’t happened yet!

Geordi still hasn’t made an appearance this season.

Another character who played a big role in pre-season marketing was Amanda Plummer’s Vadic. I said last week that I was a little concerned about Vadic, and how her claim to only be interested in Jack Crusher for the sake of money didn’t really justify her over-the-top presentation. As we learned in Seventeen Seconds, Vadic has at least one changeling ally: the spy embedded aboard the Titan. That ties her in some way to the rogue changelings and their conspiracy – and the portal-weapon that she used was similar (or identical?) to that used against the Federation base at the beginning of the season. But the extent of Vadic’s involvement is still up in the air – and I don’t think we have enough evidence at this stage to say that she is definitely a changeling herself!

In fact, I was struck by Vadic’s absence in Seventeen Seconds. She had a couple of moments in which we saw her happily deploying her portal-weapon, but we didn’t get to spend much time with her at all, which is certainly an interesting decision. As the main named villain of the season so far, I think it’s important to get to see her side of the story – and not merely to hear it second-hand via Worf or some other character. Obviously that doesn’t mean we need to have a lot of scenes with her in every episode, nor that her side of the story needs to be told at such an early stage… but it should happen some time!

Captain Vadic didn’t get much screen time this week.

Since I’ve already mentioned Vadic’s portal-weapon, let’s talk about that for a moment. I… was not blown away by this new piece of tech, to be honest. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from the worst macguffin that Star Trek has thrown at us, but I felt that there was a considerable disconnect between its visual appearance and the way in which the narrative presented it.

In brief: the way the portals appeared on screen made it look like they should be relatively easy to avoid, even for a starship like the Titan. In this specific case, where Vadic’s goal appeared to be to force the Titan to remain inside the nebula, it makes sense to use a portal in this fashion… but that’s a very niche use case, and the military applications of such a device, especially in three-dimensional battles in outer space, don’t seem readily apparent – which also calls into question parts of Worf and Raffi’s story. It’s a powerful weapon, as we’ve seen, but one that I’d argue has some pretty big limitations.

The portal-weapon is also kind of unoriginal, with similar designs having appeared in everything from hard sci-fi all the way through to the likes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The most readily apparent point of comparison is to the video game Portal, which shares a name with this device. Again, I don’t necessarily hate it – and I concede that my criticisms are rather nitpicky – but I really feel a disconnect between the relatively small portals that appeared on screen and the way in which the crew of the Titan seemed to respond to them!

But there may be more to the portal-weapon that is yet to be revealed, and it may have additional uses later in the season. I can certainly see it being a useful tool… perhaps it could be used at the last second to transport characters away from danger, for example. I also suspect that Captain Vadic may meet her end by being spliced through her own portal-weapon! But maybe we should save that for my theory update.

After a couple of weeks in which Picard looked faded, washed-out, and far too dark, I was pleased to note that this week, Seventeen Seconds only looked far too dark! The problems with colour temperature that had been present in the first two episodes of the season appear to have been fixed, at least on Amazon Prime Video, and I hope that particular issue won’t reoccur. It was a shame that it happened in the first place – and it makes Paramount look pretty unprofessional and incapable, let’s be honest – but at least it has been belatedly repaired.

The darkness issue is still ongoing, though, and this one feels much more like a creative choice. The lights on the Shrike, the Titan, the Eleos, La Sirena and in flashbacks in Guinan’s bar too, were all turned down, and the low brightness is noticeable even when compared to Seasons 1 and 2. With the colour temperature being corrected, there weren’t any scenes this week that I felt were unwatchably dark, or where main events couldn’t be perceived, but there are details in the periphery that I’m sure are functionally invisible as a result of this very deliberate choice of cinematography.

*Picard* Season 3 is still very dark – even now that the faded, washed-out look has been corrected.

CGI and visual effects were good in Seventeen Seconds, though, and I felt none of the dreaded “uncanny valley” that I flagged up in the season premiere. Whether that’s because there’s been any kind of change in the visual fidelity of Picard or whether I’m just getting reacclimated to the way Paramount and the Star Trek franchise handle their animation and visual effects… well, who can say, really? I’m just satisfied that I’m not being pulled out of the immersion every time the action cuts to the ships in space!

One particular sequence that I’d like to draw your attention to came right at the end of Seventeen Seconds. The moment where the disabled Titan appeared to “fall” – i.e. be dragged – into the nebula’s gravity well was spectacular, and successfully conveyed a sense of helplessness as the ship appears to be headed to its destruction. The effect was akin to a watercraft “sinking” under the surface – and that point of comparison feels apt. It was incredibly well done, and the perfect way to set up a cliffhanger ending.

One visual effect that could have been difficult to pull off was that of the changelings in their liquid form. In the 1990s, when Deep Space Nine was on the air, the effect used for Odo and other changelings looked good – by the standards of the time. In 2023, however, that “smooth and shiny” CGI effect is outdated, and the way in which it was brought up to modern spec was solid. The new “changeling goo” feels like a natural progression, and the kind of look that a remastered Deep Space Nine might want to adopt!

There are subtle changes, though. The Deep Space Nine effect was an amber, almost honey colour, whereas the new animation created for Seventeen Seconds had a duller, slightly greyer tone, perhaps closer to an organic compound than anything we’d seen in Deep Space Nine. In addition, the new visual effect feels much more substantial and textured, seeming to flow or ooze in a natural way. I like it, and I think it’s a great update to a classic visual effect!

The updated visual for a changeling in their liquid form.

As mentioned, I feel that the visual effect created for the Shrike’s portal-weapon may have clashed somewhat with the way the weapon was talked about and presented on-screen. But despite that, the effect itself was a clever one, and the way it seemed to unnaturally “bend” the light around it was really neat to see. It reminded me a little of Discovery’s black hole effects in Seasons 1 and 2 – a visual style influenced by the film Interstellar.

The battle sequences between the Shrike and the Titan were great, too, and the technobabble of the nebula “blinding” the Titan’s sensors really amped up the tension. Seventeen Seconds channeled the Battle of the Mutara Nebula from The Wrath of Khan in some of these sequences – but with the addition of forty years’ worth of improvements in visual effects!

The Titan’s crew had to be on lookout duty!

The only thing I’d say about the battle as a negative point is that – to quote Mr Spock from that same film – it “indicates two-dimensional thinking.” The Shrike and the Titan seemed, for the most part, to operate on a two-dimensional plane, not a three-dimensional space, and that was apparent particularly toward the end of the episode as the Shrike was able to “block” the Titan’s escape from the nebula by basically getting in the way. A line or two explaining how the Shrike could accelerate faster than the Titan, or some similar technobabble, could have negated part of this, perhaps.

This was also apparent in the operation of the portal-weapon, at least as presented visually. The relatively small portals opened in front of the Titan, but the ship had multiple routes to avoid it: up, down, left, right, or even simply coming to a halt. Again, this seems to clash with the way the weapon was emphasised in dialogue. Are these nitpicks? Absolutely!

It would have been more impactful had we met the Titan’s changeling infiltrator before he was revealed. This anonymous character may go on to be a bigger part of subsequent episodes, but the revelation that there was a spy aboard the ship was blunted, at least a little, by the fact that it was an anonymous “extra” in that role. Had the officer been someone we’d met, even briefly, it would have been more exciting – especially if we’d never suspected that there was anything unusual about him!

This is, I suspect, a consequence of the relatively short ten-episode season. However, I really do believe it would have been worth doing – it’s something that would have turned up the surprise factor in the episode if it had been done well. A short scene or two featuring this character in his role as a Starfleet impostor would have been good enough to achieve this effect.

Star Trek has told stories that deal with impostors within Starfleet on many occasions, from episodes like Conspiracy and films like The Undiscovered Country through to the changeling stories in Deep Space Nine like Homefront – and, of course, Discovery’s first season. These stories usually work well and manage to be tense and exciting – but a common hallmark is that we’ve gotten to know the impostor or impostors, at least a little, before the truth of who they are is revealed. In fact, I’d argue that this is a big part of the way this narrative framework is intended to operate; it’s nowhere near as satisfying to say “there’s a spy in our midst!” and then reveal that the spy is just some anonymous background character that we’ve never met.

Look at how well the Michael Eddington story worked in Deep Space Nine, because that’s probably the best example of this kind of storyline in the Star Trek franchise. We got to know Eddington over the course of half a dozen episodes prior to his big reveal, so when he turned out to be a Maquis operative, it was a heck of a shock! The way the changeling infiltration storyline unfolded in Seventeen Seconds worked well, and there was some clever direction and editing to have Worf and Raffi’s uncovering of the plot followed up immediately by Jack’s confrontation with the changeling… but the sequence overall could have been improved, in my view anyway, if we’d met this spy ahead of time.

Michael Eddington was a Maquis infiltrator/rogue Starfleet officer in *Deep Space Nine*.

When the Titan’s science officer repeated multiple times that the nebula the ship was trapped in was behaving abnormally, my first thought was simply this: I sincerely hope that the story isn’t going to say that this whole thing is one elaborate trap! It’s too much of a contrivance to say that Vadic was purposefully trying to trap Picard and the Titan in the Rykon system given the difficulty involved in getting there and the seemingly obscure location of this nebula.

On the other hand, the fact that this isn’t a normal nebula – and could even be “life, Jim, but not as we know it” – could open up some genuinely interesting story ideas! I feel certain that the “organic” elements of the nebula wouldn’t have been emphasised so prominently were they not going to be significant to the plot later on – but how, exactly, is shrouded in mystery right now.

There were two conflicts central to the character stories present in Seventeen Seconds: one between Picard and Dr Crusher and a second between Picard and Riker. We’ll talk about each in turn, but I think that both worked well in the context of the story.

It was interesting to see Picard and Dr Crusher having this deep and intense conversation about their son – and before we get into specifics, there’s one thing that jumped out at me. Here we have two older characters engaged in what is typically a storyline we’d associate with younger characters: pregnancy, paternity, and raising a child. It wasn’t lost on me that Sir Patrick Stewart is now in his 80s and that Gates McFadden is in her 70s, yet here they were having a discussion that would suit characters a generation younger!

Picard and Dr Crusher had a difficult conversation.

One of the themes that we’ve started to see in Picard’s third season is that of age – something that was also present in The Wrath of Khan, which serves as part of the season’s inspiration. Entering retirement, leaving friends and colleagues behind, and coming to terms with changes to both oneself and the wider world have all been touched upon – though not to quite the extent I’d been expecting, perhaps.

But this storyline – and especially Picard’s conversation with Dr Crusher – felt like it rolled back the years for both of them significantly. The intense discussion of whether Dr Crusher should have told Picard about her pregnancy is something we might’ve expected from far younger characters, so to see it handled – and handled so well – in Seventeen Seconds was great. It completely twisted the expected theme of age, and arguably also reinforces the notion that, in Star Trek’s advanced and optimistic future, humans can live longer, healthier, and more active lives.

There was also a moment in the turbolift after Jack’s injury – the titular “seventeen-second” ride that Riker had talked about in a flashback sequence – in which Picard felt very much the new father, which again gives his story a far more youthful edge than I’d been expecting. Although the focus was on Jack’s injury and survival, those seconds with Picard in the turbolift felt akin to watching an anxious soon-to-be dad in the delivery room, waiting on the birth of his son.

There was deliberate symmetry to the turbolift ride that cut through the Picard-Riker fight, and perhaps has set the stage for their potential reconciliation next week. It’s also noteworthy that Riker was hardly youthful when he became a father – and as someone whose parents were older when I was a child, I appreciate that Star Trek is putting older characters into this position. Not every child is born to young parents – increasingly so, in some communities and cultures – and while many television shows and films do a wonderful job of highlighting the particular problems and issues facing teen parents, for example, it’s actually really nice – and dare I say a little cathartic, personally speaking – to see Star Trek acknowledging that some people become parents later in life. That wasn’t the main focus of Seventeen Seconds in any way, but it’s something that I personally can take away from the story.

Before we get into the weeds too much, let me just say this: I suspect that the decision to pit Picard against both Dr Crusher and Riker in the same episode may not go down well with every fan! Part of the appeal of Picard Season 3 was in reuniting the cast of The Next Generation, and while the characters had disagreements during that show’s run, by and large they were on great terms. Some might say their friendships were a little too perfect, which is why Deep Space Nine and Voyager tried to insert more disputes between characters, and created characters from different backgrounds who had conflicting motivations.

But if the draw of an Enterprise-D reunion was bringing people back together for one last adventure, there’s a danger that these kinds of conflicts – especially if they drag on for multiple episodes – could detract from that, and I understand that argument even if I’m not personally fully signed-up with it. I hope that both conflicts will come to a satisfying conclusion, and that in fairly short order we can see Picard and his crew back on friendly terms – after all, that is a big part of what made this season interesting as a concept in the first place!

Picard and Riker on the bridge of the Titan.

My take on the first conflict is this: Dr Crusher is both correct in her belief that the son of Jean-Luc Picard would be in danger, while also being horribly inept when it comes to keep him “safe.” By leaving Starfleet and the Federation behind to go on a twenty-year unsanctioned medical mission, Dr Crusher has placed Jack in at least as much danger – if not more – than she ever would have if she’d remained in Starfleet. And that’s where this argument and this whole storyline could come unstuck.

Based on everything we know about Starfleet and the Federation, it’s generally a very safe environment. I could absolutely entertain the idea that Dr Crusher would feel a need to resign her commission in order to dedicate herself to raising Jack full-time… but the idea that she felt she had to do so beyond the borders of the Federation, in what is clearly a very complex and dangerous galaxy, risks undermining this aspect of the story. At best I guess we’ll have to call it a contrivance, something necessary to drive this part of the plot forward. At worst… well, it makes Dr Crusher look like a bit of an idiot. A dangerous idiot.

Did Dr Crusher get it wrong? Or are her reasons understandable?

This side of the story also feels as if it’s chafing uncomfortably against a massive part of the main plot from Season 2 – which was on our screens less than a year ago. The entire reason for the Confederation timeline, the mission back in time, and Q’s scheme was, at least as Q explained it, because Picard himself had been unable to let go of childhood trauma enough to settle down in a relationship. We’ve learned in Seventeen Seconds that he and Dr Crusher were once again pursuing a romantic relationship in the months or years after Nemesis, and Picard even stated that he would have been willing to be a husband and father, and that his reasons for not fully committing to Beverly were more to do with Jack Crusher Senior – his deceased best friend.

The story of Season 2 was already a terribly convoluted one that was on shaky ground, so anything that undermines it is a problem. And unfortunately, there’s no escaping the fact that parts of this storyline, as presented in Seventeen Seconds at least, are in that position. The writers tried to throw a bone to this, with Picard making an oblique reference to last season’s events, but that didn’t really go far enough and certainly hasn’t saved this aspect of the story.

Picard’s complicated romantic history with Dr Crusher treads on the toes of last season’s story.

We’ll have to go into more detail about this on another occasion – perhaps after having seen the entirety of Season 3 – but there are actually quite a few areas where these two productions seem to grate against one another. What’s so surprising about that, of course, is that Seasons 2 and 3 went into production back-to-back, with the same production team and showrunner present for both. I’m not saying I wanted or expected Seasons 2 and 3 to form a single ongoing story – though they certainly could have if a suitable story had been written – but it feels odd to see so many small and large points of conflict.

But we’re drifting off-topic! Picard’s second conflict was with Riker, and while the two men seemed to work together seamlessly at first, a radical difference in approach became apparent as the episode wore on.

Picard and Riker had different ideas about how to tackle Vadic and the Shrike.

So there’s a dichotomy here for me. On the one hand, I don’t particularly dislike this idea, and I feel that Seventeen Seconds handled it well. The conflict felt organic and natural, and it was presented as exactly what it was: a genuine difference of opinion and approach. The episode didn’t frame either Picard or Riker as being right or wrong, and there are interpretations as to how to approach a battle of this nature.

But on the other hand… the more I think about it, I can’t escape a simple reality: pitting Picard and Riker against one another would not be my choice, if for no other reason than the story, at least at this point, doesn’t seem to need it. I’ve spoken about this before, particularly in relation to Discovery, but it feels as if this extra element of drama has been concocted and then forced into a story that was already so tense and dramatic that it didn’t need it. Picard, Riker, and the rest of the crew of the Titan were already in a life-or-death, impossibly high-stakes confrontation, so throwing in a personal spat between two main characters didn’t really ramp that up; the tension and drama were already turned all the way up to eleven.

I think a lot of people were surprised by this conflict…

That being said, I have a theory about Riker that, were it to pan out, would completely explain this and basically negate all of those points of criticism. Even if my theory is wrong, the disagreement may end up resolved within the next episode, and that would set the season back on what feels like the “right” path: the path where these characters get back together for one final mission.

Just because I wouldn’t have chosen to tell a story in which Picard and Riker find themselves at loggerheads doesn’t mean that it didn’t work well in Seventeen Seconds, and the way in which their disagreement was built up and then spilled over into argument was well handled. By the time Riker banished Picard from the bridge, we had a solid understanding of both men’s positions and perspectives – and under the circumstances, that’s the most we could have asked from this storyline!

So let’s wrap things up!

Seventeen Seconds was a tense, exciting, and thoroughly enjoyable ride from start to finish, and probably the best episode of Picard since the Season 2 premiere last year. There are nitpicks, as there almost always are, but they melt away when confronted with such an outstanding episode of television.

I’d felt that Season 3 had gotten off to a slow start, but the pacing this week felt perfect. There were no truncated or cut-down moments, and practically everyone got something significant to do. All in all, a great episode!

A few scattered final thoughts:

I liked the interaction between Seven and Ensign La Forge, showing how Seven has won respect and friendship from her colleagues, even if she doesn’t get it from Captain Shaw. After the “deadnaming” over the past couple of episodes, it was great to see La Forge call her “Seven!”
Captain Shaw is injured – but not dead! Will he remain in sickbay for the next few episodes… or will he come roaring back, take command of the ship back from Riker, and find a way out of the nebula?
Surely we’ve gotta see Geordi and Troi next week, right?
Worf and Raffi were able to track their target pretty easily… is that because of Worf’s skill, or because the story has its focus elsewhere?
With the Titan disabled, why did Vadic abandon her pursuit? Is capturing Jack no longer her objective?
Time is a bit of an issue: Dr Crusher says she found out about her pregnancy shortly after she last saw Picard – circa twenty years ago. And I don’t mean to be unkind, but actor Ed Speleers, who plays Jack, is clearly not twenty. A poor casting choice, or are we okay with giving a bit of “soap opera ageing” flexibility here?

Star Trek: Picard Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 2: Disengage

Sun 26.02.23Sun 26.02.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Undiscovered Country, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager.

If you read my review of the season premiere last week, there’s almost no need to read this! In short, many of the points I made last time are the same this time: Disengage was an episode with the same contradictory feel as The Next Generation, one in which the main storyline seemed to edge along at a very slow pace while several story beats rushed past too quickly, or else didn’t get enough time dedicated to them.

And those story beats are more or less the same ones as last time, too: Raffi’s undercover mission seemed to race by, some of the scenes between Picard and Jack could have been extended, Riker didn’t get a lot of time to shine, and even the intrigue on the Titan with Captain Shaw and Seven didn’t get a lot of time in the spotlight. As I said last week, it’s a story with a contradictory feel.

Let’s talk visuals. Both last week and this week, Picard looked incredibly washed-out and faded on my 4K HDR display. I tried adjusting my screen manually, but I could either get the default faded, washed-out look or I could get a horribly over-corrected, over-saturated look. Neither is right or natural, and the colour temperature of the season so far feels off. I hope this is something that Paramount can fix – but I doubt it.

In addition to the colour temperature issue, both episodes of the season so far have been incredibly dark. In multiple scenes and sequences – particularly those set in Raffi’s underworld city, but it wasn’t entirely restricted to that setting – it hasn’t always been easy to see what’s going on. Areas that should be in focus are poorly illuminated, and the washed-out effect doesn’t help here either. Again, this is something I’d hope Paramount would have been able to correct behind-the-scenes when it became apparent… but so far, no luck. I did manage to, shall we say, “source” a second copy of Disengage, but this was also plagued by the same issues.

*Picard* Season 3 has a dark, faded look in many scenes.

There are really two parts to this complaint. The first is that this is a deliberate choice of cinematography, presenting scenes in a dark, under-illuminated way to try to achieve a certain visual effect. The limitations of this are apparent, and one need only look at similar complaints in other television shows to see why turning the brightness down isn’t a good idea.

Secondly we have the way episodes are compiled and compressed for streaming, and I think there’s a technical issue here that Paramount has yet to get to grips with. Because the episodes were dark to begin with, compressing them down for streaming may have contributed to this faded, washed-out look. My screen isn’t a cheap model by any means, but it’s a problem if the only time Picard can look reasonable is when it’s seen on an expensive, high-end OLED television set.

For illustrative purposes, here’s a promo photo for *Disengage* featuring Seven of Nine and Captain Shaw…

…and here’s the photographed scene as it appeared in the episode. Note the radical difference in brightness, colour temperature, and tone.

So let’s take a step back. Where are we in terms of story? After two complete episodes – a full 20% of the season – it still feels like we’re at the beginning. The main events of both The Next Generation and Disengage appear to have taken place, for the most part, over the span of a few hours; the exception being Raffi’s sequences, which, despite being rushed, actually seem to take place over a longer spell of time.

This episode focused on Jack Crusher, the character who many of us had guessed was the son – somehow – of Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher. This focus on Jack’s identity and backstory was worth doing, and although some moments didn’t quite stick the landing, it’s an interesting and engaging story – one that has me wanting to learn more. But again, in terms of the overall narrative arc of the season, it feels as though Disengage crawled along at a pretty slow pace.

Is the main story progressing at the right pace? Or am I overthinking things?

Two episodes in and we’ve barely gotten off the starting line. Dr Crusher’s plea for help and Picard and Riker’s off-the-books rescue was the starting point for this story, yet after two entire episodes have passed, we haven’t moved much beyond that yet. It makes me feel as though some of the moments in Disengage could and perhaps should have been included last week.

The ten-episode seasons of modern television shows are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Picard would almost certainly never have been made if Paramount insisted on twenty episodes or more per season! And the serialised nature of these stories makes a ten-episode season akin to a ten-part movie, which is a great thing in many ways. But on the other hand, these truncated seasons don’t have as much room for manoeuvre, so getting bogged down at the starting line – or spending too long on side-quests – can end up having a serious knock-on impact. We saw this with Picard in both its first and second seasons… and I can’t shake the feeling, even at this relatively early stage, that the same problem is about to reoccur.

Captain Vadic and her crew on the Shrike.

Now for the contradiction! At several points, I felt that all we were getting of Riker were clips; cut-down snippets of what should’ve been longer scenes. There was scope to spend a lot more time with Riker as he tried to convince Picard of what he already knew: that Jack is his son. Having Riker realise that first was a genuinely great story point – one that showed just how close these two old friends are, and how Riker has a perceptiveness, even years later, that Picard can rely on. But it was blitzed through so quickly that there wasn’t enough time to really showcase this angle, and that’s a shame.

Re-establishing and evolving the relationship between Riker and Picard has been one of the best things about Star Trek: Picard, and feels like a real, solid justification for providing these characters with new storylines after such a long time. But it’s only really when the action slowed down in Season 1’s Nepenthe that the show truly excelled in terms of this kind of character-focused storytelling.

Picard and Riker had an all-too-brief chat about Jack.

I’d have wanted to spend a bit more time with Riker this week, and the moments we got with him felt somehow cut-down. The problem, as I’ve said before in Picard, isn’t that the core idea is in any way bad, it’s that it needed more screen time to properly unfold. There was merit in Riker seeing the obvious, and using him as the point-of-view character to convey the truth of Jack’s parentage; revealing to us as the audience something Picard couldn’t – or wouldn’t – see. But that got lost because of how short most of Riker’s scenes were, unfortunately.

We continue to rush through Raffi’s story to such an extent that certain elements, such as the inclusion of her ex-husband, felt almost gratuitous; the story clearly doesn’t have time to delve into this relationship in a big way. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last we see – or even hear – of Raffi’s ex, and as I’ve said about narrative elements in Picard more than once: good idea, not enough time to do anything meaningful with it.

Once again, Michelle Hurd excelled – but she did so in spite of the way the season has been scripted and/or edited. And despite jumping from point to point as she tried to chase down the terrorist or terrorists responsible for the attack, her storyline again feels like it hasn’t made a lot of progress from its start point.

Last week, Raffi was desperately trying to hunt down the person who stole “experimental weapons,” and this week she continued to do that. She found the broker who arranged the sale – but that’s all. Again, all of this could turn out to be okay… but I’m just worried about the pacing of the story in light of what happened in Seasons 1 and 2.

Parts of Raffi’s story continue to feel rushed.

All that being said, the moments we got with Raffi this week were among my favourites in the episode – and are probably among Raffi’s most interesting scenes, from a narrative point of view, that we’ve gotten in the entire series to date. It’s absolutely true that Raffi’s underworld planet borrows a lot both visually and thematically from Star Wars and dystopian sci-fi, but I think there’s more than enough room in the Star Trek galaxy for places like this to exist. We’ve caught glimpses of such worlds in past iterations of the franchise, too, so I think it works well.

The scenes with Sneed – the Ferengi broker – were fantastic. At first, I wondered if there might be some kind of connection to Quark or perhaps DaiMon Bok with the introduction of a Ferengi character, but Sneed was perfectly interesting on his own. And the last-minute arrival of Worf to save the day – revealing himself as Raffi’s “handler” – capped off this story in pitch-perfect fashion. There are nitpicks here, sure, but overall I felt it worked well.

Let’s talk about Vadic, who made her first appearance of the season. I’m convinced that there’s more to Vadic than has been revealed so far – though it was noteworthy in Disengage that no one recognised her, or had even heard of her. That certainly calls into question some of the ideas that I and others may have had for who she could be and how she may be connected to Picard and the crew… but I don’t think it totally destroys all but the most outlandish of fan theories, so we’ll come back to that perhaps in my next theory update.

My concern about Vadic’s presentation in Disengage comes down to a single factor: her motivation. A villain this over-the-top (and Vadic was, for better or worse, certainly over-the-top in Disengage) needs to have a reason for being so. Khan – the character I and others compared Vadic with after her initial appearance in pre-season trailers – had a single-minded quest for vengeance. Like Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick, he was willing to do anything and sacrifice anything to get his revenge on Kirk for years of being abandoned in a desolate wasteland, and that came across in his on-screen presentation.

If Vadic is motivated solely by money – as she claims – that seriously undermines her characterisation. Sure, Jack Crusher may be a valuable target – but does that justify the kind of “Khan meets the Wicked Witch of the West mixed with Dr Doofenshmirtz” presentation? Amanda Plummer really dialled it up to eleven with her villainous performance, letting every word, every syllable, drip with malice, and throwing in a wonderful cackle for good measure. But if Vadic only cares about money… I just feel there’s a disconnect between the character and the performance if that’s the case.

But there are still eight episodes left for Vadic’s story to unfold, and for her to become more than just a one-dimensional villain trope. I’d hoped we might’ve seen the beginnings of that in some way this week, and going into the episode I was probably more excited to meet Vadic than I was about any other character. While I wouldn’t describe her as a “let-down,” she’s definitely a character I think we need to see more of before we can really assess whether or not she’s going to work, and whether her inclusion will end up being a positive thing for the season… or might end up detracting from it.

If we’re to see Vadic as something more than a bog-standard villain trope, we need to know more about her and what’s driving her.

What we’ve heard about Vadic and her crew from Jack – as well as a couple of remarks of a rumoured ship matching the Shrike’s design from Seven of Nine – tells us that she has resources at her disposal. The Shrike was armed to the teeth, and more than outmatched the Titan – which Captain Shaw described this week as a vessel of exploration, which I thought was interesting. But that doesn’t really speak to who Vadic is or what her overall motivation might be – especially if, as the season seems to be suggesting, she’s the terrorist mastermind that Raffi and Worf have been chasing and who attacked the Federation facility last week.

So again, we need to learn more about this character. We obviously weren’t going to get her entire backstory and an explanation of her mission in a single episode, and I wasn’t expecting to. But I was expecting to at least see the beginnings of that – and so far, it feels that Vadic’s true identity and motivation is rather obscured. I don’t believe that “money” will be all there is to it… but just in case I’m wrong about that, let me say right now that it will be monumentally unsatisfying if that somehow were to be the case.

The Shrike’s tractor beam attack was neat, though.

In The Wrath of Khan, Kirk learned that he had a son: David Marcus. Continuing the theme of Season 3 being “Picard does The Wrath of Khan,” we have Jack Crusher being Picard’s own son. This revelation – that at least some fans saw coming – is an interesting one, though I hope the mechanics of how it came to be will be explained… somehow. I don’t need a detailed, no-holds-barred flashback sequence (please no) but some kind of explanation of the events surrounding Jack’s conception wouldn’t go amiss.

As I said last week: there’s a question of timing that I find particularly interesting. According to Riker, Dr Crusher has been absent from her friends’ lives for approximately twenty years, but Jack is clearly not twenty years old or younger – no offence to actor Ed Speleers! – which means he had to have been around before her unannounced departure. Could we learn that a threat against Beverly, Jack, or perhaps against Picard might’ve prompted her to take him and leave?

Why did Dr Crusher take Jack and leave everyone behind?

The question of safety is also a pertinent one. Based on one of Dr Crusher’s lines from pre-season trailers, in which she says something to Picard about “attempts on [his] life,” I’d been wondering whether Dr Crusher may have taken her son as far away as possible in order to keep him safe. But Jack’s long list of criminal offences and the huge bounty seemingly placed on his head would seem to run completely counter to that; at the very least, if this was Dr Crusher’s intention, she hasn’t done a very good job of it!

If we’re sticking with comparisons to The Wrath of Khan, will Jack Crusher end up meeting the same fate as David Marcus? And if so, will his death have the same kind of effect on Picard as David’s did on Kirk? It would be cruel to introduce this character and begin to explore his background and his relationship with both his mother and Picard only to see him killed off – but it could be poetic symmetry, too.

We’ve already seen Jack offering himself to Vadic in an attempted act of self-sacrifice – something not incomparable to how David stepped in to save Saavik’s life in The Search for Spock. Saavik’s name was seen, briefly, this week – used for the doomed shuttle that Picard and Riker piloted to the Eleos. According to background details released by Paramount, Saavik was the commanding officer of the original USS Titan in the late 23rd Century.

These references could be to honour the late Kirstie Alley, the first actress to play the role of Saavik, who passed away late last year. They could also just be coincidental references to tie Picard Season 3 into past iterations of Star Trek. But there’s also a very deliberate connection to The Wrath of Khan once again… and in light of what happened with David Marcus and Saavik, I can’t help but wonder whether the season is setting up Jack Crusher for a similarly sacrificial end.

…and Kirstie Alley as Saavik in *The Wrath of Khan*.

I hope that there will be time to explore some of what Dr Crusher and Jack have been doing. Jack’s crimes can’t and shouldn’t just be hand-waved away by the story; such an important part of his background needs to be fleshed out. It won’t be enough to say “Jack’s a criminal,” and leave it at that – we need to know some of the details of why he broke the law, whether some or all of it could be morally justifiable, and why, when he’s supposedly on a “mission of mercy,” such law-breaking was required in the first place.

As with Raffi’s criminal underworld, I think there’s scope to show off a side of the Star Trek galaxy that hasn’t always been front-and-centre, and there’s definitely a pathway to explain Jack’s criminality in a way that feels natural and even sympathetic. Saying that he “did what he had to do” in order to provide medical assistance is going to be part of that, for sure – but I hope there will be time to go into a bit more detail.

Jack has an extensive criminal record… and a list of aliases.

There’s also clearly more to Captain Shaw than meets the eye. Vadic alluded to his “psychological profile,” and I think that could potentially connect with his anti-Borg prejudice that we saw in last week’s episode. If Captain Shaw had lost someone to the Borg, such an event could have had an impact on him – and could explain why he’s so openly hostile to Picard and Seven of Nine in particular. I keep expecting Captain Shaw to be killed off – but there may be more of an arc for this character than I’d been expecting.

What I liked about Shaw’s story this week was the moral ambiguity of it. It’s tempting to portray Shaw as being cowardly; turning over Jack to Vadic in order to save himself. But there’s clearly more to it than that – he takes the responsibility of command very seriously, and his number one overriding priority seems to be to keep his crew safe. He’s outside Federation space, with no immediate hope of backup, facing an opponent that clearly outmatches him in terms of firepower… so risking the lives of everyone on his ship to save a wanted criminal is a big ask – even if we as the audience would want to see the son of Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher kept safe.

Am I warming up to Captain Shaw?! That’s certainly not something I expected! But under the rude, unpleasant, and even bigoted exterior, I think we’ve seen glimpses of a good, upstanding captain. Putting aside the anti-Borg prejudice, Shaw reminds me, as I said last time, of the likes of The Search for Spock’s Captain Stiles, Discovery’s Captain Lorca, and The Next Generation’s Captain Jellico. Shaw isn’t wrong in his read on Picard and Riker – who snuck aboard his ship and took it on an unsanctioned mission. His anti-Borg attitude may be extreme, and targeting the wrong people, but I feel we may be on the verge of finding out how it came about. And finally, when he realised the true circumstances he was faced with, Shaw did the right thing – albeit at the last possible moment.

So Captain Shaw has turned out to be more complex than I expected. What’s more, he’s different enough from Chris Rios to provide some kind of justification for the latter’s departure from the series. These storylines wouldn’t have worked with Captain Rios, and while others could have been created to get the rest of the characters to similar narrative places, it would have been a lot more friendly and less adversarial. That’s more “Star Trek” in some ways – but perhaps less interesting in others!

Picard seemed to be struggling with the idea of Jack being his son, and only really came to accept it at the end of the episode. As mentioned, I think there was scope to do a bit more with this idea – explaining why Picard felt that way, and whether he was trying to push those questions aside simply as a point of practicality given the time constraint, or whether it was because he feared the truth. The way Disengage presented Picard left it open as to which it might’ve been – I can see clear cases for both explanations, and the episode doesn’t seem to have picked a side.

The scene in which an injured Dr Crusher wordlessly conveyed the truth, though, was spectacularly well done, and the emotional high point of Disengage. The wordless scene was set to a fantastically evocative piece of music, and told us what I think most viewers already knew: that Jack is Picard’s son.

Though this story was, overall, a tad rushed, and I’d have liked to have spent more time with Picard, Riker, and Jack in the moments leading up to it, there’s no faulting the final “reveal” itself. This moment also cemented Captain Shaw as an albeit begrudging ally, and has set the stage for the next chapter of the story as the Titan fled into a dangerous nebula.

A battle in a sensor-blind nebula? That sounds like yet another story beat from The Wrath of Khan! This season really is going all-in with the Khan comparisons… and so far, I’m really into that! It isn’t a straight copy; there are enough differences that we can consider it a variation on a theme. But the overt callbacks to one of the best things Star Trek has ever done are not going unnoticed – and after two muddled, lacklustre seasons, maybe this kind of big all-action blow-out is just what the doctor ordered.

Aside from the danger of coming across as repetitive – which Season 3 has thus far avoided, I have to say – the other potential pitfall here is that this story just feels a bit… safe. Not safe for our characters – not all of whom will make it to the end alive and unscathed, I’m fairly confident of that – but in terms of how the story comes across. This narrative framework is one that Star Trek has used before, and that could mean that we’ll end the season feeling it played things a bit too safe. We’ll have to see – but it’s worth keeping in mind.

So let’s start to wrap things up! Disengage finally saw the season move beyond its starting point, and we now have some idea of how the two main narrative arcs may come together. It was a treat to see Worf again after so long – but a shame he was on screen so briefly. The same can be said for Riker, whose contributions to the episode were a little too rushed for my liking.

Visually, Disengage was a bit of a disappointment due to a washed-out, faded look that didn’t suit an already dark episode. However, the CGI and other effects work was perfectly okay, and unlike last week I didn’t feel too much of the dreaded “uncanny valley” in CGI sequences featuring the Shrike and the Titan.

Whether Disengage did enough to advance its two main narratives is still an open question, and one that I feel particularly attuned to after the disappointments of Seasons 1 and 2. I’m crossing my fingers that it will all be alright, and that the next eight episodes will see the story advance and unfold at just the right pace. Both this week’s episode and last week’s have left me worried, though.

Overall, I had a good time with Disengage. I don’t think it’s the best episode of the series or anything, but it feels like there’s the potential to consider it a solid addition, one that advanced key storylines just far enough. I certainly hope so, anyway!

Aside from pacing, my biggest point of concern – or rather, my biggest question-mark – coming out of Disengage has to do with Vadic and the way she’s both written and presented on screen. I feel that we’re going to learn something significant about Vadic in the weeks ahead that will completely reframe her characterisation, and give meaning and purpose to someone who feels a bit out-of-place right now. “Money” can’t be all there is – at least, I hope not!

So that was Disengage. Let’s see what Season 3 has in store for us next time.

Five more episodes to watch before Star Trek: Picard Season 3

Thu 02.02.23Thu 02.02.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-2 and the trailers, teasers, and announcements for Season 3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Prodigy.

A few days ago I picked out a dozen Star Trek episodes (and a couple of films) that I thought would make good background viewing ahead of Star Trek: Picard’s upcoming third and final season. Since then, we’ve been treated to the final Season 3 trailer, and while I wasn’t exactly blown away by the trailer itself, it raised a couple of potentially interesting points that made me think of a few more Star Trek episodes. So on this occasion we’re going to add five more Star Trek episodes to the list!

I had quite a lot to say about the final Season 3 trailer, so if you missed my thoughts and analysis you can find that piece by clicking or tapping here. And to see the first part of this list, containing other episodes and films that I think will be good to watch ahead of Picard Season 3, click or tap here.

There’s still an awful lot that we don’t know about Picard Season 3. Although we have a sense of who the main characters will be, there are still some question-marks about how they will all work together – and even which side everyone will be on. There are also, in my opinion at least, a couple of potentially-open character slots on the villainous side of the season – particularly if Captain Vadic has, as I have posited, put together a kind of “rogues’ gallery” of past Star Trek baddies!

A couple of caveats before we get started. First of all, I have no “insider information,” and I’m not trying to claim that any of the episodes listed below definitely will have a bearing on the storyline of Picard Season 3. This is guesswork on my part – and nothing more! Secondly, all of this is simply the subjective take of one person. I’ve picked a few episodes that I think could be relevant, but if you disagree with my picks or if I exclude something you think is blindingly obvious, that’s just the way it goes! This is just one person’s opinion – and it’s meant to be taken in the spirit of fun.

With that out of the way, let’s get started!

Story #1:
Coming of Age and Conspiracy
The Next Generation Season 1

Admiral Quinn, Riker, and Picard at Starfleet Headquarters.

Coming of Age is primarily about Wesley Crusher and his first attempt to get accepted into Starfleet Academy. However, the episode’s secondary plot sets up the story of Conspiracy, the penultimate episode of The Next Generation Season 1. In Conspiracy, a race of parasitic aliens infiltrate Starfleet Command, taking over senior officers, including admirals, as part of a plot to subjugate the Federation. Though the parasitic aliens would claim that they sought “peaceful coexistence,” their actions clearly showed that they planned to take over Starfleet – perhaps as a first step to conquering the Federation.

Before their “mother creature” was killed it was able to send a signal into deep space, and Data believed that the parasite-aliens would one day return. This story was originally intended to set up the Borg storyline in Season 2, but I think everyone can agree it’s for the best that that didn’t happen! For our purposes, there was something about Captain Vadic in the Season 3 trailer, and particularly Dr Crusher’s line about Picard being unable to trust anyone within Starfleet, that made me think of Conspiracy. I think it would be an incredibly bold and unexpected move to return to what was, let’s be honest, not one of The Next Generation’s finest or best-remembered stories. But at the very least, the episode’s concept of a conspiracy within Starfleet itself could be worth checking out… even if the parasite-aliens aren’t going to make a comeback!

Story #2:
The Enemy
The Next Generation Season 3

The Enemy is a great Star Trek episode, and an absolutely classic example of how the franchise uses its sci-fi setting to tell stories that reflect the real world. When considering what may be to come in Picard Season 3, it’s also a strong Geordi La Forge story, and one that sees him interacting with a Romulan. The Romulans were a big deal in Picard Season 1, and if we take Geordi’s role in the spin-off comics and novels that have been released in recent years, he may have been present on Mars when the Zhat Vash caused the synths to attack. He may feel he has unfinished business with the Romulans, or lingering trauma over those events, so stepping back to see Geordi’s first big meeting with a Romulan could be worthwhile.

Geordi is one of the characters whose role in Season 3 feels totally ambiguous. All we know at this stage from the trailers and teasers is that he seems to have been promoted to the rank of commodore and that he may have a senior position on board Spacedock or another similar starbase. I like the idea of revisiting an earlier Geordi story to see how far he’s come – and The Enemy is one of his best episodes in The Next Generation.

Story #3:
You Are Cordially Invited, Change of Heart, and Tears of the Prophets
Deep Space Nine Season 6

Worf and Jadzia Dax on their wedding day.

This trio of episodes, spread across Deep Space Nine’s fantastic sixth season, focus in large part on Worf’s relationship with Jadzia Dax. Worf and Jadzia got married at the height of the Dominion War, not long after the Federation had re-taken DS9 from the Cardassians and the Dominion, but their marriage was, sadly, not to last – Jadzia was killed at the end of the season. I remember Jadzia’s death coming as a huge shock when I first watched Tears of the Prophets; although we knew actress Terry Farrell would be leaving the series, the decision to outright kill Jadzia was still a bold one – the first main character death in Star Trek since Tasha Yar at the beginning of The Next Generation a decade earlier.

With Worf coming back in Season 3, there’s a chance, at least, that his marriage to Jadzia will be referred to. Showrunner Terry Matalas has suggested that part of Worf’s arc will connect back to his experiences not just on Deep Space Nine, but specifically to his service in the Dominion War – and although Worf did a lot for the war effort, the biggest emotional moment for him has to be his marriage and the subsequent death of his wife. Although Deep Space Nine’s seventh season explored this through Worf’s conversations with Ezri Dax, there’s definitely scope to see how Worf would have processed his grief and loss after the war’s end.

Story #4:
What You Leave Behind
Deep Space Nine Season 7

Odo and Colonel Kira on the Founders’ homeworld.

Picking up that same Dominion War theme, we come to the finale of Deep Space Nine and the final engagement of the conflict. The episode ends with the Dominion’s defeat and Odo choosing to return to the Founders’ homeworld to share his knowledge of living in the Alpha Quadrant – as well as Captain Sisko’s departure to the realm of the Prophets! There’s a lot to unpack in this complex and emotional feature-length episode, but for our purposes we’re focused on the Dominion War and its ending.

It’s possible that Captain Vadic will have some connection to the war – she certainly seems old enough to have potentially served in it. She could be a Founder, perhaps, and if the changelings are once again on the move, that could explain why Dr Crusher warned Picard about not trusting anyone. Or Vadic’s connection to the war could come from the other side: she could be a Federation or even Romulan officer who served. Either way, some kind of Dominion War connection has been teased – so seeing how the war came to an end could be important.

Story #5:
Human Error
Voyager Season 7

I didn’t really pick any Seven of Nine episodes on my last list – which is kind of an oversight, given that she will be returning in Picard Season 3! Voyager’s later seasons included quite a few Seven-focused episodes (if you’d have asked me at the time, I’d have definitely said there were too many!) but for today, I want to take a look at Human Error.

Part of Seven’s story this time around is sure to focus on her new role within Starfleet, and although Picard’s first two seasons already gave her a deeply cathartic arc and plenty of development, her change of circumstances this time around could be very interesting. Human Error shows Seven of Nine trying to hone her social skills on the holodeck, as well as setting the stage for a potential romance with Chakotay. Of all the “Seven of Nine learns how to be human” stories – of which there were a lot – Human Error is one of the more interesting, and perhaps some of the themes it touches on will be relevant this time around… even if the main plot points themselves are unlikely to be!

Bonus:
Star Trek: Prodigy
Season 1

I almost included this as an “official” entry on the list, but I’m not sure I could justify saying that all of Prodigy’s first season is going to make for necessary or even relevant background viewing ahead of Picard Season 3! But there are a few points of note that, while unlikely to come up in a big way, would be worth keeping in mind – especially for Seven of Nine’s story. Prodigy’s first season serves as a sequel, of a sort, to Voyager – and we learn what happened to Chakotay and Admiral Janeway in particular over the course of twenty episodes.

This isn’t Prodigy’s main focus, but it’s a story that’s weaved through the entire season, setting up the story and taking it to its end point. Seven of Nine may or may not know all of the details of what happened, and the events of Prodigy take place almost fifteen years before Picard. But as someone who was close with Janeway and Chakotay, Seven may have come to know about their adventures with the USS Protostar. I really doubt that there will be a major connection, but there could be a name-drop or some other hint at the events of Prodigy through Seven’s story arc.

So if you have time and you haven’t seen Prodigy yet… now could be the right moment!

So that’s it!

Geordi La Forge looking rather cross in the most recent trailer.

Unless I think of any more episodes – or come up with any of my patented (and usually wrong) theories – I think this is it! Between this list and the one I published a few days ago, these are all the stories that I think could make for useful background viewing ahead of Picard Season 3.

As I said last time, I’m less “excited” for this new outing than I want to be. Two difficult, muddled, mismanaged seasons of Picard have been, on the whole, a pretty big disappointment, especially when I consider that this was the series – and the Star Trek concept – that I was most interested in and had waited almost twenty years to see. Season 3, rather than being one more fantastic adventure, feels more like the last chance saloon – not only the final opportunity for Picard to tell a decent, well-paced, exciting story, but perhaps the last good opportunity for the Star Trek franchise as a whole to demonstrate to parent company Paramount that it’s worth investing in this early 25th Century setting in a big way.

I have concerns already, particularly surrounding the way the main cast from Season 1 was handled and how they were jettisoned from the series with most of them not getting so much as a “goodbye.” And I can’t shake the feeling that the new season may be rushing headfirst into exactly the kind of nostalgia overload that has continually tripped up the modern Star Wars franchise.

But despite all of that, I’ve vowed to give Picard Season 3 a fair shake when it debuts in a couple of weeks’ time. Whether any of the stories and episodes we’ve talked about today will be relevant or not, I still think they’re all enjoyable and well worth a watch. If nothing else, they can give us a bit of a baseline to see where these legacy characters were in their prime.

Don’t forget to check out the first part of this list, which contains another batch of Star Trek stories that I think could make for useful background viewing ahead of Picard Season 3. You can find it by clicking or tapping here. And when Season 3 premieres, I hope you’ll check back for weekly episode reviews – and perhaps even a few theories!

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will premiere on Paramount+ in the United States on the 16th of February 2023, and on Amazon Prime Video in the United Kingdom and around the world on the 17th of February 2023. Seasons 1 and 2 are already available to stream or buy on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Picard and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 – Death Predictions

Sun 29.01.23Dennis

Is everyone going to survive the upcoming season of Star Trek: Picard? I think there are reasons to doubt that! So today I’m going to take a look at the show’s main and secondary characters and speculate about who may or may not be killed off before the curtain falls. Is that a bit macabre?

Picard hasn’t been shy when it comes to killing off legacy characters. In Season 1 we lost Hugh the Borg, Icheb, Bruce Maddox, and if you want to get technical about it, Picard himself – or at least his original body! We also saw the villainous Rizzo killed off in the season finale. And in Season 2, we said goodbye to Q most notably, but also saw Tallinn killed off as the story reached its conclusion.

In addition, several comments from showrunner Terry Matalas and others involved in the production of Season 3 have seemed to hint at the possibility of character deaths. So I think we have reason enough to speculate about who may or may not make it to the end of the story!

A well-timed character death can do wonders for a story, raising the stakes significantly. In the aftermath of television shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones – pioneers of what I call the “disposable cast” model, where no main character can reasonably be assumed to be safe – audience expectations have shifted, and throwing characters into life-or-death situations definitely feels more dangerous than it ever used to!

Icheb was one of several legacy characters to die in Season 1.

A character death can also be the right move for a story. If a character has completed their arc or storyline, it can feel right – at least in some cases – if the way their story ends is with their death. So for all of those reasons, I think it’s at least a possibility that Star Trek: Picard will go down this route in Season 3.

When we’re dealing with legacy characters, this does get a bit more complicated. The main characters from The Next Generation are iconic and beloved, and need to be handled with care! But it could still feel right for the story, the character themselves, or both, if one or more were killed off. This season is being billed as the “final” adventure for this crew – and I can’t help but feel that “final” could really mean “final” for at least one of them!

Several of the main cast and crew at a recent panel.

Before we get started, a couple of caveats. First of all, I’m not necessarily advocating for any of these characters to be killed off. I adore The Next Generation and its characters, and while I could accept the loss of one or more of them if it came at the right moment and was handled well, I don’t really want to have to say goodbye to anyone!

This is also just the subjective opinion of one person. I’m going to look at each of the characters in turn and share my thoughts – but if you think I’m completely wrong or if I miss something you consider obvious, just keep in mind that it’s only my opinion… and although this is a dark subject in some ways, it’s supposed to be a bit of fun!

Finally, I have no “insider information.” I’m not even certain that all of the characters we’re going to look at will appear or even be mentioned in Season 3, let alone that they’ll have fully-fledged arcs, so please remember to take all of this in that spirit.

With all of that out of the way, let’s get started!

Character #1:
Jean-Luc Picard

Status:
Safe

Star Trek: Picard has, as mentioned, already “killed” Jean-Luc Picard – and it would feel very strange if the show were to do so again! I know that a lot of folks speculated that Picard would be permanently killed off in this series, especially in the run-up to Season 1 when it wasn’t clear if the series would be renewed, but having already done a fake-out death, it would be difficult, I feel, for the show to kill off Picard for a second time.

It’s primarily for that reason that I consider Picard to be safe. If we hadn’t gone through that death-and-rebirth narrative at the end of Season 1, I’d almost certainly feel that he was in danger. And I could be wrong about that – if the series is the final chapter of his story, it makes a lot of sense for it to end with his death. But I really feel that it would be a struggle to kill off Picard for the second time in a way that would be impactful, emotional, and that would carry the necessary weight to say a permanent goodbye to such an iconic character who has been such an important part of the Star Trek franchise.

Character #2:
Laris

Status:
Killed Off-Screen?

Laris was central to Picard’s story in Season 2 – serving as the “love interest” that he struggled to begin a relationship with. Picard’s inability to settle into a romantic relationship was what caused Q to set the entire season’s story in motion, and by the time Picard returned to his vineyard at the end of the season, he finally seemed ready to embrace a potential new relationship with Laris, something Guinan called his “one final frontier still to come.”

But unfortunately, Laris actress Orla Brady is one of the main cast members who won’t be returning for Season 3, something she confirmed shortly after the Season 2 finale had aired. Although Picard and Laris seemed to be on the verge of becoming a couple, Brady’s absence from the new season seems to suggest that it won’t happen. One reason for that could be Laris’ death – and after Zhaban was killed off-screen in between Seasons 1 and 2, I wouldn’t be stunned to see the series treat her the same way. Either way, given Laris’ importance last season her absence will have to be addressed somehow.

Character #3:
William Riker

Status:
In Danger

When considering potential character deaths, one factor to consider is the impact a particular loss would have on the people around them. While all of the main characters are friends, the bond that Riker had with both Picard and Troi – his wife – would make his potential death incredibly significant for those characters in particular.

Riker has also reached a point where we could at least make the case that his story feels somewhat complete. Having served as Picard’s loyal “number one” for fifteen years, he finally accepted his own command, got married to the person he loves, had a family, and retired. If Season 3 is to be an epilogue of sorts for Riker… maybe it won’t end well for him!

Character #4:
Elnor

Status:
Killed Off-Screen?

I genuinely do not understand the decision to grant Elnor a last-second stay of execution at the end of Season 2. His death, while tragic in more ways than one, served a narrative function, and was of particular importance to Raffi. After a deeply emotional sequence in the penultimate episode of the season, I felt certain that Elnor was truly gone – until Q resurrected him.

Why, then, do I suspect that Elnor may have been killed off-screen? It isn’t just the confirmed absence of actor Evan Evagora, though that is a part of it, but that we seemed to see Raffi looking angry and distraught in the trailer. It would arguably be repetitive if Raffi were forced to deal with Elnor’s death for the second season in a row… but then again, it worked well as the driving force for her arc last time. Elnor’s absence will have to be explained somehow, and unless he’s being secretly tapped for a role in the long-rumoured Starfleet Academy series, he might end up dead for the second time.

Character #5:
Captain Vadic

Status:
Deader than dead. 101% dead.

If anyone is going to die this season, surely it will be the villain of the piece! Somehow, some way, by the time the credits roll on the season finale, Captain Vadic will have been killed – I am practically certain of that. Her defeat and death may end up costing Picard and the crew dearly, but these kinds of villains really only end one way.

I just hope that, along the way, we truly come to learn who Vadic is and what’s driving her. Seasons 1 and 2 both left a lot on the table in terms of unexplained or unclear narrative threads, and whilst we’re having fun reuniting with the crew of the Enterprise-D, I truly want to spend time with Vadic to figure out what’s going on with her.

Character #6:
Dr Beverly Crusher

Status:
In Danger

Because of the nature of her close relationship with Picard – regardless of whether they ever “crossed that line” and became more than just friends – Dr Crusher’s death would hit him especially hard. For that reason alone, in a show called Star Trek: Picard, Dr Crusher is absolutely in danger!

Not only that, but based on what little we know so far, Dr Crusher is going to have a significant role to play in jump-starting the story, sending a distress signal of some kind to Picard while on an assignment in deep space. We’ve already seen clips in the trailers that confirm she will be reunited with Picard, so that mission won’t prove fatal. But Dr Crusher seems to be connected to whatever’s going on – perhaps in a big way. She could be one of Captain Vadic’s targets.

Character #7:
Lore

Status:
50/50

I could see Lore’s story going one of two ways. Either he really leans into the “evil twin” angle from The Next Generation, allowing Brent Spiner to put in yet another delicious villainous performance, or there’s some kind of pathway to redemption for him – perhaps even one that might lead to a resurrection or restoration of Data.

So I’m calling this one 50/50. If there’s more to Lore’s story this season than just pure villainy, I think he’s in with a chance of survival. If he remains true to his mission and is loyal to Vadic, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him meet his end – maybe at the hands of Geordi!

Character #8:
Soji

Status:
Killed Off-Screen?

Soji made scarcely more than a cameo appearance in Season 2, and didn’t even join the others for a drink at Guinan’s bar at the end of the story. If the story of Season 3 will involve some kind of attack or invasion, such as by the Season 1 super-synths as I’ve previously theorised, we could learn that Soji has been killed. However, after being absent last time, her death wouldn’t have as big an impact on either the characters on the show or on us as the audience – so that could be a reason not to do it.

Either way, I hope some reference is made to Soji to explain her absence from the season’s story. She was such a big part of Season 1 that it would be a shame to hear absolutely nothing about her in the show’s final season.

Character #9:
Worf

Status:
In Danger

Of all The Next Generation characters, it seems from the trailers that Worf may be the one who’s changed the most from when we last saw him. Worf seemed to suggest that he has become a “pacifist,” something that could really shake up his characterisation. After a long arc across not only The Next Generation, but the back half of Deep Space Nine too, maybe Worf’s story is finally at an end. He might even be at peace with that idea!

Worf is the character that we’ve spent the most time with in all of Star Trek, so his exit – if indeed there is to be one – will have to be handled with care. But for Worf, dying in battle to save his friends (and maybe the Federation, too) would actually be a good way to go. So maybe it will finally be a good day to die for our favourite Klingon!

Character #10:
Seven of Nine

Status:
Safe

I’m calling Seven “safe” because I’m not convinced that the Star Trek franchise is done with her just yet! I know I wasn’t the only one in the aftermath of Season 2 to suggest that some kind of “Captain Seven” series could be an interesting direction to take for the next Star Trek production, but even if that doesn’t happen, the development that Seven’s character has gone through in Picard so far has set the stage for further appearances in some form.

While we’re still waiting to hear what (if anything) is coming up next for Star Trek, any future 25th Century series would do well to include Seven of Nine either as a main or recurring character. Her arc in Picard has been utterly transformative, taking one of my least-favourite characters from Voyager and getting her to a point where I could legitimately see her as the lead in her own spin-off.

Character #11:
Deanna Troi

Status:
In Danger

As above with Riker, Troi has to be considered in danger because of the emotional weight her death would carry. This would pack a punch for Riker in particular, as they’re married, but Troi was also close with Dr Crusher and Worf too. Like Riker, Troi has also arguably come to the end of her story: serving in Starfleet, retiring, and becoming a parent.

The loss of Troi would also deprive the crew of a particularly useful talent: her empathic abilities. As an empath, Troi has been able to get a sense of all kinds of adversaries – and in one of the trailers we saw her become deeply alarmed at what she sensed from Vadic. Losing Troi would weaken Picard’s crew in a potentially significant way – and that could provide a narrative reason for killing her off.

Character #12:
Raffi Musiker

Status:
In Danger

If there’s going to be any kind of “Seven of Nine show,” surely Raffi would be a part of that? But even with that caveat in mind, I can’t shake the feeling that Raffi could be in danger. If Picard’s writers and producers want the impact of killing off a main character – but don’t want the controversy of killing a legacy character – then Raffi is really their only option.

With the rest of the new characters already gone, it would be a great shame to lose Raffi as well. One of the things I hoped that Picard would do was serve as a kind of launchpad for new stories set in this time period – and for that to happen, at least some new characters need to be introduced, developed, and stick around. Raffi is the last new character standing, so if there is to be any kind of “passing of the torch,” as the show’s producers have suggested, she needs to survive!

Character #13:
Geordi La Forge

Status:
In Danger

One of the few things we know at this stage about Geordi in Season 3 is that he has two daughters – both of whom are set to appear in the show. As above with Troi and Riker, Geordi’s story could feel complete or close to complete in some ways, which could mean he’s in danger. His death would not only hit the main characters, but also these two new characters – and if it’s played well, the emotional impact of that could be huge.

Although I don’t think this is canon, at least one tie-in novel for Season 1 stated that Geordi had worked with Picard on the Romulan rescue plan prior to the attack on Mars. Dialogue in Season 1 confirmed the two are still friends, but I wonder if there could be unfinished business there. If so, that could give Geordi a reason to stick around – or it could set the stage for an arc that ends with his death.

Characters #14 and #15:
Sidney and Alandra La Forge

Status:
In Danger

Geordi’s daughters – who seem to have been given the names Sidney and Alandra – will be joining the mission, but despite their connection to him, at this point in the story they’re little more than redshirts… and we all know what can happen to characters like that!

If Picard’s writers and producers wanted to kill off a character in a way that would pack an emotional punch, Sidney and/or Alandra could be in the firing line. Their deaths would have a huge impact on Geordi, which could become a big part of his arc and characterisation across the season. It would be especially cruel to kill off both of these characters… but plenty of television shows have done exactly that kind of thing!

Character #16:
Professor Moriarty

Status:
In Danger

At this stage, I genuinely don’t know whether Professor Moriarty will have a significant role or if his appearance will be more of a cameo. Regardless, I think he’s in danger – and he could be one of the first villains on the chopping block, with Lore and Vadic keeping up the fight after his defeat/destruction.

Although Moriarty was programmed to be “evil” because of the source material upon which his characterisation was based, he’s a surprisingly sympathetic character – or at least he feels that way to me. His existence isn’t his fault, and the fact that he was trapped by the limitations of his technology feels strangely relatable. Could there be a redemption arc for Moriarty?

Character #17:
The Borg Queen-Dr Jurati hybrid

Status:
Killed Off-Screen?

The Borg Queen-Dr Jurati hybrid didn’t get a “goodbye” at all in Season 2, promising to stand watch over the mysterious anomaly that was part of that season’s story. I really hope that Season 3 will address this somehow – and I have a theory as to how the mysterious anomaly could connect not only to Season 3, but to the events of Season 1 as well!

Regardless of whether that pans out, though, we know that Alison Pill won’t be reprising her role in Season 3, which leads to the question of the Borg Queen’s survival. If the mysterious anomaly were to erupt again, could it have destroyed her ship? Or might her Borg faction have been one of Vadic’s targets?

Character #18:
Sela (or Tasha Yar?)

Status:
Unknown

At time of writing, we don’t know whether Denise Crosby’s rumoured appearance in Season 3 is for real. Some outlets have reported it as if it were fact, but I can’t find anything official on that! But let’s assume she is coming back for a moment. If her character of Sela is involved, somehow, I think she’s in serious danger. If there’s some kind of attempt to bring back Tasha Yar, then all bets are off!

Sela tangled with Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D on two occasions, being defeated both times. If someone like Vadic were putting together a revenge mission, I can absolutely see Sela jumping at the chance to be part of it. Her story could also connect in some way to the Romulan storylines in Season 1. But if she’s coming back as a villain and part of Vadic’s team, I definitely think that puts her in the firing line.

Character #19:
Another familiar face

Status:
In Danger

One of the most shocking sequences in the trailer was the apparent destruction of Starfleet HQ (or some other major Federation building). If this is real, and isn’t some kind of vision or dream sequence, it stands to reason that a lot of Starfleet folks might be killed. Among them could easily be a familiar face or two from Star Trek’s past – either a recurring character or perhaps even a major character from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or Voyager.

As we saw in Season 1, Picard hasn’t been shy when it comes to reintroducing a legacy character only to kill them off. Icheb’s death is perhaps the most noteworthy example, and it could be significant if a familiar character or two were to be killed by Vadic or someone working with her. If this happens, though, I hope we’re reintroduced to the character in some way, and that their death isn’t merely included as a line of dialogue.

So that’s it!

Those are all of the characters we know of at this stage, and I’ve made some wild guesses and perhaps even a couple of logical, educated guesses about who may or may not make it to the end of the season.

At the end of the day, when you throw characters into a high-stakes, high-tension, high-danger story, it stands to reason that they won’t all make it out alive. As television storytelling has progressed, the risk to even beloved main characters has become greater than it ever was, and although we have seen some pretty heavy plot armour in some parts of the Star Trek franchise (looking at you, Discovery) I can’t shake the feeling that someone significant is going to be killed before Season 3 is done.

But hey, maybe I’m wrong about that! In any case, we don’t have long left to wait before we’ll find out! As I said last time, I’m planning to write individual episode reviews as Season 3 is broadcast, and I’ll also craft a few theories if the series lends itself to that – so be sure to stop by when Season 3 arrives!

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will premiere on Paramount+ in the United States on the 16th of February 2023, and in the United Kingdom and around the world on the 17th of February 2023. Seasons 1 and 2 are already available to stream or buy on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Picard and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 – Comic-Con trailer thoughts and analysis

Tue 08.11.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-2 and the trailers, teasers, and announcements for Season 3. Spoilers are also present for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager.

At New York Comic-Con back in September, Paramount showed off a new trailer for the upcoming third season of Star Trek: Picard, and I’m finally getting around to taking a look at it! This time, I’m going to give my thoughts and analysis of what was shown off in the trailer, as well as speculate a little about what the plot of Picard’s final season might end up looking like.

The first thing to say is that Season 3 appears to be another standalone story, one that doesn’t follow on directly from the events of Season 2. Does that mean that we’ll never know who or what caused the anomaly that was so central to kicking off (and resolving) last season’s main story? And does it mean that the dangling story threads from Season 1 will also be left unresolved when Picard comes to an end? I hope not – but I have to say that, based on what we know of Season 3 at this stage, my hopes of the unresolved storylines from Seasons 1 and 2 being addressed are fading fast.

Will Season 3 provide a conclusion to unresolved stories from Seasons 1 and 2?

And before we go any further, I want to address that. Picard, despite having a lot of promise when it was announced and when it premiered, has been hit-and-miss so far; a rather disconnected series that has boldly tried some new and potentially-interesting ideas, but that hasn’t always managed to pull them off successfully. I still haven’t written up my full thoughts on Season 2 as a whole, but suffice to say that there were some pretty significant problems that seriously hampered my enjoyment. If Season 3 is, as I suspect, leaving all of that behind to rush off into another new story, for me that’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, spending too much time looking back at the underwhelming elements of Season 2 isn’t what I’d want to see… but on the other, Season 3 represents Star Trek’s last chance – at least in this iteration – to make more of some of those unresolved storylines. Season 2 could end up looking better in retrospect if it turns out to be one piece of a greater whole… but if Season 3 drops those stories to do its own thing, it will remain a disappointment.

I’ve already shared my thoughts on the way the casting situation has been handled, but as we’re diving back into Picard Season 3, I think it’s worth pointing out again that the return of The Next Generation’s main characters – all of whom got some screen time in the new trailer – has come at the expense of several genuinely interesting characters from Seasons 1 and 2 of Picard that we were only just beginning to get to know. As it seems unlikely that most of them will be seen in the franchise again – at least, not for a long time – I think it’s worth reiterating just how much potential has been squandered.

The cast of *Star Trek: Picard* Season 1 – most of whom are not returning this time around.

If the Star Trek franchise is to survive long-term, it can’t simply coast on nostalgia. Trying new things, innovating, and introducing new characters has been what the franchise has done since the 1980s, but the current crop of Star Trek shows all seem to be falling back on nostalgic crutches in a way that they really shouldn’t. Picard Season 3 may be the epitome of this backwards-looking take on the franchise, but it’s certainly not the only example.

But that’s enough about that for now! We’re here to look at the trailer rather than talk about Picard or the franchise in a general sense, and the New York Comic-Con trailer definitely raised a lot of interesting (or potentially-interesting) points!

First of all, the season’s main villain, played by veteran actress Amanda Plummer, will be called Captain Vadic. Vadic was seen briefly in the trailer, and seems to have an almost Khan-like obsession with getting revenge on Picard and his former Enterprise-D crewmates. Exactly what her beef is with the retired admiral is unclear… but given who else is involved, surely there has to be a connection to The Next Generation, right?

Well, not so fast! In both Seasons 1 and 2, key storylines were ultimately not connected in a major way to Picard’s past… or at least, not to elements of his past that we were already familiar with. Speculation abounded regarding the Coppelius synths, the mysterious super-synths, the Borg Queen, the anomaly, and Q, but ultimately in both seasons the writers chose to go in a different and new direction. Captain Vadic could be connected to Picard either because she’s a returning character utilising a nom de guerre or because she’s related to or otherwise connected to a classic character. And don’t worry, I have plenty of ideas in that vein that we’ll talk about on another occasion! But I think we have to consider the very real possibility that this character, as well as whatever may have caused her to hate Picard and his crew, will be something entirely new to us as the audience.

I liked what I saw of Amanda Plummer’s performance in the trailer. She brought a ferocity to Captain Vadic that straddled the line between dedication and obsession, and had an almost animalistic or beastly quality that echoed not only Khan, but other great Star Trek villains too. Vadic has been described as an “alien,” though what species she could be if not human wasn’t clear. Could her scars suggest some kind of ex-Borg origin, perhaps?

Vadic’s ship, the Shrike, seemed to draw inspiration from Nemo’s Narada that we saw in 2009’s Star Trek reboot film, as well as perhaps from the Romulan vessels seen in Nemesis, which could all hint at a Romulan (or Reman) origin or connection. The sweeping, blade-like lines of the Shrike give the vessel a genuinely threatening appearance, and if what we saw from Picard and Riker in the trailer depicts them and their vessel in combat against the Shrike, Vadic’s ship seems to have the weapons to back up its intimidating look!

Speaking of starships, we got a closer look at the USS Titan in the new trailer – and it looks absolutely fantastic! One of the criticisms some fans have had of Picard – especially with last season’s 21st Century story – has been the lack of starships, and in addition to the Titan we also caught a glimpse of Star Trek Online’s Enterprise-F. Though I dabbled briefly in Star Trek Online, MMO games aren’t really “my thing,” but I’m nevertheless happy to see the creative team take inspiration from the game on this occasion. Fans of Star Trek Online will be thrilled, undoubtedly!

La Sirena was also present, and may be being used by Raffi and/or Seven of Nine. I like the design of La Sirena and I hope the story will find a way to include the smaller vessel alongside bigger ships like the Titan and Enterprise-F. Rounding out the “starship porn” in the trailer was a beautiful shot of Earth Spacedock – bringing back memories of both The Next Generation and some of the Star Trek films in which the massive station was featured. Could a Search for Spock-inspired starship heist be on the cards? I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

The Enterprise-F, with a design borrowed from *Star Trek Online*.

Although the producers are keeping a pretty tight lid on the season’s story, the trailer did actually give us quite a lot to go on. Captain Vadic seems to be chasing Dr Crusher – perhaps to get to Picard or get his attention – and her reason for doing so seems to be connected to her hatred of Picard and his Enterprise-D crewmates. As I said, we’ll speculate more about her possible reasons in the days ahead.

As part of her anti-Picard vendetta, Captain Vadic appears to have put together what I’d describe as something of a “rogues’ gallery” of The Next Generation’s villains. We saw Professor Moriarty – the sentient hologram created in the Season 2 episode Elementary, Dear Data – as well as Lore, Data’s “evil twin.” Could there be more villains from The Next Generation era who’ll be brought on board? I think that’s a distinct possibility!

Professor Moriarty joins a “rogues’ gallery” for an anti-Picard vendetta.

Captain Vadic was seen speaking to a group of characters – most of whom had their faces covered or obscured – promising “vengeance,” so I think it’s at least possible that we haven’t seen the last big or surprising announcement of a returning villain! Several of the characters with Vadic seemed to be aliens, and I can think of no shortage of alien adversaries that Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D tackled during their adventures. Could the promise of revenge combined with Captain Vadic’s powerful personality have convinced them all to work together?

Any time a television show brings back a number of past characters all at once, there’s a risk of some of them being overshadowed. If, as I suspect, Captain Vadic is someone wholly new connected to a hitherto-unseen event in Picard’s past, her dominant role as the leader of the rogues’ gallery could end up relegating the likes of Lore and Professor Moriarty to smaller cameos. Depending on how it’s handled that could be fine – or it could be a little underwhelming. Paramount is promising big things from this “explosive” final season of Picard… so I hope the series can deliver!

We saw quite a lot of Riker in the new trailer, more than almost anyone else aside from Picard himself. The relationship between Riker and Picard was, in my view anyway, beautifully restored in the Season 1 episode Nepenthe, which saw the two men reuniting for the first time in almost twenty years (at least on screen). After seeing Riker out of uniform enjoying his family life and retirement, it’ll be great to see him back in action once more.

I feel that Worf’s appearance has the most potential to cause controversy out of all of the returning cast members. His statement in the trailer that he “prefers pacifism” and has abandoned the way of violence was played for laughs at first, but it represents a major departure from the character we knew through seven seasons of The Next Generation and four of Deep Space Nine. It’s definitely something that could feel like a natural progression if it’s suitably well-explained – some older Klingon characters, like Kor, for instance, seemed to mellow with age and become less quick to anger – but it’s definitely a move that could be controversial in some quarters. Could this be the producers and creators potentially setting up a calmer, more level-headed Worf for a leading role in his own series or film?

We didn’t see too much of either Dr Crusher or Deanna Troi, though the former seems to be a major driving force in kicking off the storyline. I expect we’ll hear of her distress signal in the season premiere, and that could be the moment where an off-duty Picard was approached by two Starfleet officers (was that scene in Guinan’s bar? I couldn’t tell!) As for Troi, she seems to be along for the ride with Riker, and her Betazoid senses were put to use describing the mood on what could be the Shrike as an “all-consuming darkness.” This ties into the themes of obsession and revenge that I touched on earlier.

Seeing Dr Crusher in some form of stasis pod was interesting; could her distress signal have been the lure to get Picard (and the others) back out into space? If Dr Crusher was the only one of the Enterprise-D crew who was on a deep space assignment, she would seem to be the logical target – as bait in a trap!

Raffi also seems to be being hunted – can we assume it’s by the same adversary? If so, Captain Vadic may be doing more than simply targeting the crew of the Enterprise-D – she may be trying to get to Picard by attacking anyone he’s worked closely with in the past. As his former aide-de-camp from his time as an Admiral, Raffi certainly fits the profile!

But there could be more to it than that. We’re getting into some seriously speculative territory, but if the story of the new season involves a villain (and/or a rogues’ gallery of villains) trying to hurt Picard by targeting those close to him, we could potentially learn of the deaths of some friendly faces. Elnor and Soji spring to mind as possible victims – both worked closely with Picard and neither are scheduled to make a major appearance this time around. Could one or both of their deaths have sent Raffi into hiding? Or put her on the revenge trail?

Finally we have Geordi La Forge. In the trailer his main moment came when he seemed to criticise Picard for dragging Worf and Riker into whatever crisis is going on… but it doesn’t end there. We know from casting – and briefly from an appearance at the Titan’s helm in the trailer – that Geordi will be joined by two of his children. One of his daughters will be played by LeVar Burton’s real-life daughter Mica, which is neat. Mica Burton hosted Star Trek Day 2021 alongside Wil Wheaton, and has been a fixture in the expanded Star Trek community ever since the franchise returned to the small screen.

Having covered the main characters – and speculated a little about some of them – we still have a few disjointed clips and images to assess from the trailer before we wrap things up! Starfleet Academy or Starfleet HQ appears to be attacked and destroyed at one point, but for some reason my gut instinct is to say that that may not happen in the real world. We could be looking at a simulation, dream, or plan rather than an actual attack. I don’t know exactly why I feel that way… but I do!

Is this moment real, or does it take place in a dream or fantasy sequence?

Amongst some wreckage in space we caught a glimpse of a derelict or abandoned starship. Could this be Dr Crusher’s ship – the one from which she sent the distress signal to Admiral Picard? The name and registry number was hard to make out from the trailer, and the design seemed similar to the USS Titan. The field of debris in which the ship was drifting seems too large to all have come from one (largely intact) vessel, so could this be the aftermath of a larger battle in which other ships were destroyed?

As mentioned, I can’t quite tell if the trailer’s opening shot sees Picard at Guinan’s bar on Earth (“Ten” on Forward Avenue in Los Angeles’ historic district that was featured in Season 2), but it certainly could be. Starting Season 3 in a location that was central to the story of Season 2 would go some way to tying the stories together if there isn’t a bigger connection between what seems to be two separate stories.

Is Picard dining at Guinan’s bar in this scene?

Some of the shots of the Shrike and Titan chasing one another and battling seem to be reminiscent of the Briar Patch from the film Insurrection, so could that be a clue? Starship battles that take place in nebulae have been a part of the franchise from The Wrath of Khan all the way through to Discovery’s most recent outing, so it’s by no means a cast-iron statement. But the colour and appearance of the clouds in the nebula certainly brought back memories of Insurrection for me.

The Shrike having the power to outgun the Titan could mean that the ship is incredibly powerful – like Nero’s Narada or Shinzon’s Scimitar, for example – but it could also speak to the Titan potentially being an older vessel, perhaps one that has been recently taken out of mothballs and potentially with only a skeleton crew aboard. While the Shrike definitely has the appearance of a warship or a hunter, it could be worth keeping in mind the Titan’s potential condition!

After being given a field commission last season and assuming command of the USS Stargazer, Seven of Nine appears to wear the rank pips of a commander rather than a captain, though she does still seem to be on the command track. It wouldn’t be the first time that an officer below the rank of captain has been given a command, though, so Seven may yet prove to be in command of a vessel. Geordi, meanwhile, appears to hold the rank of either a commodore or perhaps a one-star admiral based on the single pip seen on his uniform collar.

I find it interesting, too, that Seven has chosen to remain in Starfleet while Raffi appears to have taken La Sirena on a mission of her own. Is this something that we’ll see her do during the season, or is this where her story will begin? If so, what could have caused her to abandon Seven, Elnor, and her role in Starfleet? And could this connect with my theory above about Captain Vadic potentially having attacked, kidnapped, or killed the likes of Elnor and Soji?

By far my biggest question at this stage is this: who else, besides Moriarty and Lore, might be joining Captain Vadic’s rogues’ gallery? I feel all but certain that we’re going to see other villains of The Next Generation era coming on board if this is a quest for vengeance against Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D. From the Duras family and Sela to DaiMon Bok and even the Maquis, Picard and his crew thwarted the nefarious schemes of many villains during their adventures – and if Captain Vadic is indeed putting together a crew of her own to seek revenge, there must be no shortage of applicants!

If Picard and the crew are going to go out with a bang, as we’ve been promised, facing off against a team of their most powerful and feared adversaries could absolutely make for an exciting, tense, and explosive season of Star Trek. After the slower pace of Season 2 and its focus on Picard’s innermost thoughts and his personal family history, something a bit more action-oriented this time around could be just what the doctor ordered. Although I’m still upset about the decision to ditch most of the main cast members from Seasons 1 and 2 in favour of this return to The Next Generation’s characters, I’m hopeful that what we’ll get will be a fun ride and a great way to say goodbye.

Season 3 is purportedly the final voyage for Picard and the crew.

The trailer shown off at New York Comic-Con looked action-packed and exciting, so hopefully that’s representative of the new season. Although Picard has its problems and I have some gripes, the trailer itself has raised my hopes, and I’m now definitely looking forward to the new season.

So that’s it for now! Although this summer and autumn has seen me writing less and making fewer posts here on the website, when Picard Season 3 kicks off in February I still plan to review each episode in turn, as well as crafting a few theories and giving my thoughts on how the season as a whole shapes up. So I hope you’ll stay tuned and join me for that in the new year!

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will stream on Paramount+ in the United States and on Amazon Prime Video around the world beginning on the 16th of February 2023. Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream now and are also available on DVD and Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Picard and all other properties mentioned above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

There are two unannounced Star Trek projects being worked on. What could they be?

Sun 21.08.22Sat 01.04.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the Star Trek franchise, including Picard Season 2, Strange New Worlds Season 1, and Discovery Season 4.

It’s been known for a while that there are unannounced Star Trek projects that are being worked on behind-the-scenes, and from time to time someone senior at Paramount will re-confirm this fact in public! Just last month at Comic-Con, we got yet another statement about these secretive projects, this time from Alex Kurtzman himself – the man who’s in charge of the overall direction of the Star Trek franchise. Kurtzman stated that there are two unannounced series that are in active development, so today I thought it could be a bit of fun to speculate about what exactly those projects could involve!

In the past I’ve put out lists of prospective Star Trek shows, but this time I want to be more focused. Rather than wild speculation or pure fantasy, I want to stick as close as possible to what we know based on statements that have been made in public, filings by Paramount, and plausible rumours from around the Star Trek franchise. Rather than saying “here’s a list of my fantasy Star Trek projects,” I want to try to stay realistic and consider some projects that feel genuinely plausible. So that’s what we’re going to do today – no “hospital ship” or “colony world” concepts here! As nice as those would be from my perspective, they don’t seem like ideas that are being actively considered by Paramount at the moment.

Alex Kurtzman is in charge of the Star Trek franchise for Paramount.
*Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons*

Despite wanting to stick to the real world as much as possible, my usual caveat applies: I have no “sources” close to the production of Star Trek nor any “insider information.” I’m not trying to say that any of these projects are definitely going to be made, let alone that an announcement may be imminent! I’ve tried to base the entries on this list on statements from people involved with Star Trek, official notices and filings from Paramount, and plausible, persistent rumours – but all of it could be easily wrong or otherwise untrue. So please take all of this with more than a few grains of salt!

The reason why I’m putting together this list now is twofold. Firstly, Star Trek Day is coming up in just under three weeks from now, and there’s the possibility of a big announcement as part of that event. Secondly, Season 3 of Picard will be that show’s last, so in my view Paramount will already have something lined up to replace it – and an announcement of that project may be forthcoming sooner rather than later. Announcing Picard’s replacement too close to its third season risks overshadowing the show as it comes to an end; getting the announcement out of the way ahead of time will give fans time to properly digest it.

So with all of that out of the way, let’s jump into the list!

Series #1:
Section 31

Sloan, director of Section 31 during the Dominion War era.

Although a series based around Section 31 has technically been “announced,” the lack of any official news for almost four years at this point clearly means that the series has hit some bumps in the road. While I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that it’s been cancelled altogether, it’s still possible that the Section 31 series will be reworked and perhaps even re-announced along with a premiere date.

As I’ve said more than once, the Section 31 series was announced far too early. Not only was it completely overshadowed by the hugely positive response from fans to Captain Pike and Spock in Discovery’s second season – something that seemed to catch Paramount completely off-guard – but its main character desperately needed the development she would receive in Discovery’s third season in particular before she could begin to feel like someone who could carry her own spin-off.

At the time the Section 31 series was first announced, many fans viewed Georgiou as a kind of sociopathic monster.

When the Section 31 series was first discussed, Michelle Yeoh’s Empress Georgiou was about as flat and one-dimensional as Star Trek characters get. Moreover, she wasn’t just a villain, she was a psychopathic, genocidal monster who kept slaves, ate sentient beings, and seemed to revel in torture, violence, and death. Even for an organisation as roguish and off-the-books as Section 31, Empress Georgiou seemed extreme – and asking fans to support a series centred around a character like that was, for many, too much.

It wasn’t until the two-part Season 3 episode Terra Firma that we really saw a change in Georgiou. After spending time away from the Mirror Universe she began to view aliens as equals rather than sub-human, and had even adopted some Federation-inspired ways of thinking. By the time she stepped into the Guardian of Forever’s portal she had changed just enough that she could be an anti-hero rather than an out-and-out villain, and both she and the Section 31 series needed that development.

Georgiou enters the Guardian of Forever’s portal in *Terra Firma, Part 2*.

My gut still says that the Section 31 series isn’t going to happen, and we should brace for a quiet cancellation sometime in the future rather than a big announcement. I haven’t heard anything about the series since its premature announcement back in January 2019 that sounded even slightly positive, and with Star Trek branching out in different directions, it’s possible that Section 31 simply missed the boat.

However, at time of writing the Section 31 series still exists, Paramount has retained the trademarked name, and it isn’t impossible to think that it will be revived. Perhaps a new team of writers and producers will take over the project and rework it in some way – potentially even without Empress Georgiou.

Series #2:
Seven of Nine and Raffi

Seven of Nine and Raffi at the end of *Picard* Season 2.

With Picard concluding its run before any of the other current Star Trek projects, a spin-off from that series feels like a distinct possibility when considering its replacement. The time period that Picard established – the dawn of the 25th Century – is not represented by any other current Star Trek project, so if Paramount wants to keep that era alive – and potentially bring in more legacy characters from Deep Space Nine and Voyager – then a series occupying the same timeframe could be a possibility.

A lot of work went into Picard Season 2 in terms of sets being constructed for the brand-new USS Stargazer – but those sets were only used in the premiere and the second half of the season finale. That seems like a lot of work for relatively little screen time, so part of me has been wondering ever since whether those sets may be destined for use in a spin-off project!

Could a Seven and Raffi series be set aboard the new USS Stargazer?

With Seven of Nine being awarded a role in Starfleet at the end of Picard Season 2, she could be being groomed for command. Depending on how she and Raffi get on in Season 3 – which we’ll see in the first half of next year – a spin-off could see those two characters headline a new show, perhaps one set aboard the USS Stargazer.

Seven of Nine was, at one time, my least-favourite Voyager character. But Picard has given her some much-needed development that led into a wonderful arc across both seasons of the show so far, culminating in her taking the Stargazer’s captain’s chair in the Season 2 finale. I would never have expected to write these words in 2000-2001, but I think I’m ready for a Seven of Nine series!

Seven of Nine takes the captain’s chair.

Both Seven and Raffi have tactical backgrounds, so we could potentially see a series set aboard a kind of rapid-response vessel. The Stargazer’s mission could be less about exploration and more tactical in nature, potentially serving as Starfleet’s “muscle” in dangerous situations. That concept isn’t one that Star Trek has done before (not as a whole series, at least) so it would be something different for the franchise.

There are other 25th Century concepts that could replace Picard, but a direct spin-off featuring at least one new character that was introduced in that series could be just what the Star Trek franchise needs. Keeping some consistency and some ties between different projects isn’t a bad idea, and I’m sure that a Seven and Raffi series could find a way to stand on its own two feet without the presence of Admiral Picard.

Series #3:
Project Khan and/or Ceti Alpha V

Iconic Star Trek villain Khan could make a return.

Earlier this year it was reported that Paramount had trademarked the name Project Khan. This follows on from a pitch by The Wrath of Khan writer/director Nicholas Meyer, whose project would focus on Khan’s life in between the events of Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan. Although these two ideas could be totally separate, there does seem to be an appetite from someone at Paramount to see this iconic villain make a comeback.

If we take the two ideas as separate for now, Project Khan could be connected to the Eugenics Wars, and could even be a spin-off from Picard. Season 2 antagonist Adam Soong very prominently picked up a folder titled “Project Khan” at the end of his storyline, with the series seeming to imply that he plans to resume working on some kind of genetic engineering.

How might this moment from *Picard* Season 2 connect to *Project Khan*?

This is a complete hypothetical, but if we were to get a series starting from that point, Khan himself may not appear. This could be a Brent Spiner project with Adam Soong attempting to recreate Khan’s work in the 21st Century, and could potentially see things like the outbreak of World War III, which purportedly happened in that era. Such a series could see the return of Chris Rios and Dr Teresa Ramirez – they could be trying to stop Dr Soong’s work.

Alternatively, Project Khan could step back to before the events of Picard and focus on Khan’s rise to power in the 20th Century. This would be an interesting concept, but it would have to be handled delicately. In short, the Star Trek timeline has, until now, been pretty vague about events in the modern day and how they relate to real-world history. If it were set in the 1990s, Project Khan could completely transform our knowledge of that era – but it could also tread on the toes of a number of other Star Trek stories.

Then we come to the Ceti Alpha V pitch. As much as I admire Nicholas Meyer’s work on Star Trek, I have to be honest: this isn’t a series I would give the green light to if I were in charge. We’re talking about the least-interesting chapter of a story where the ending is already known, and I just don’t see what Ceti Alpha V could tell us about Khan or his ambitious plans that we don’t already know from Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan.

There is the tantalising possibility that a Khan-focused project could connect with Strange New Worlds, though, as the character of La’an Noonien-Singh is a descendant of Khan. That could certainly be a point in favour of doing a new Khan story. Last year I took a longer look at the Ceti Alpha V concept, and you can find that article by clicking or tapping here.

Series #4:
Starfleet Academy

The logo of Starfleet Academy in the 24th Century.

Last year (at Star Trek Day) Alex Kurtzman came pretty close to confirming that a Starfleet Academy series may be in the works. It’s certainly the nearest we’ve gotten to any kind of outright confirmation – and as above, Starfleet Academy is a title that Paramount has trademarked, this time all the way back in 2018.

Combine that with what felt like a bit of a backdoor pilot during Discovery’s fourth season, and I think we have a solid case to make that a Starfleet Academy series could be in the works! The Discovery Season 4 episode All Is Possible featured Lieutenant Tilly heading off on an away mission with a trio of new Starfleet cadets at the recently-reopened Starfleet Academy. It ended with her deciding to take up a permanent teaching post at Starfleet Academy and departing the USS Discovery – although she would reappear in the season finale.

All Is Possible definitely feels like a backdoor pilot, although the attention wasn’t on Tilly and the cadets all of the time. Tilly’s presence would connect the series to Discovery in a major way, and there’d be the possibility of crossover episodes with both shows set in the same 32nd Century time period. A Starfleet Academy show could also feature David Cronenberg’s character of Dr Kovich – a somewhat mysterious character who I still can’t figure out!

Alternatively, a Starfleet Academy series could ignore the 32nd Century and instead be set in the 25th. This version of the series could feature characters like Raffi and Elnor – the latter of whom is a cadet, and who was resurrected at the last minute in a sequence in the Season 2 finale that feels seriously underwhelming right now. Perhaps Elnor’s survival could be given new meaning and purpose if he were to be a major character in a Starfleet Academy series.

As a series concept, Starfleet Academy has been around the longest! While The Original Series was still in production in the 1960s, Gene Roddenberry came up with the idea of a show that would have focused on young Kirk and Spock during their Academy days – something we eventually saw (albeit in an alternate timeline) in 2009’s Star Trek reboot film.

I feel like a Starfleet Academy series could be a strong addition to the franchise. Not only would it be something different, but it could also be a great first contact for younger viewers – and perhaps even a second port of call for those who’ve recently become fans of Prodigy, too – as they find their way into the Star Trek fandom. Having several cadets as major characters would mean younger viewers could find this iteration of Star Trek easier to relate to and get started with, and that can only be a positive thing. I took a longer look at the Starfleet Academy concept last year, and you can find that article by clicking or tapping here.

Series #5:
Enterprise Season 5/The Earth-Romulan War

The NX-01 Enterprise and two Romulan vessels.

This one is a bit more speculative, but I’m not the only one to wonder if there may be an attempt to bring back the 22nd Century in the near future. Calling this one “Enterprise Season 5″ might be a bit of a stretch, but any 22nd Century project could bring back at least some of the characters from that series for another adventure.

Prior to its cancellation in 2005, there were plans being drawn up for a fifth season of Enterprise. According to one of the show’s producers, if it had gone ahead Season 5 would’ve shown more of the origins of the Federation, and particularly the Earth-Romulan War that was first referenced in The Original Series. That could be the starting point for a revived Enterprise or a new 22nd Century series.

The Earth-Romulan War was established in *The Original Series* Season 1 episode *Balance of Terror*.

The Earth-Romulan War is a major event in Federation history, one that pushed the founding members of the Federation closer together. It was also a devastating conflict in its own right, and a series focusing on the war could have echoes of Deep Space Nine’s Dominion War arc. Star Trek can do war stories incredibly well – as we’ve seen in episodes of Discovery and Strange New Worlds just in the last couple of years – so this could be a great fit for an expanding franchise.

Any franchise has to be careful about coming across as too backwards-looking and introspective if it dives deeply into chapters of its own lore and backstory, but I think there’s space as Star Trek continues its renaissance to potentially step back to the time of the Earth-Romulan War. I know a lot of fans would happily welcome back Captain Archer or any other members of the Enterprise crew, so this project could be a real “love letter to the fans.”

There were a number of factors that led to Enterprise’s cancellation in 2005, and although it was sad at the time, in many ways the Star Trek franchise needed a break and a reset. But maybe the time is right to bring back some of the characters and stories that had been conceived for unproduced seasons of Enterprise now that the franchise is back on solid ground.

There are definitely arguments to be made against establishing yet another different time period for Star Trek, as the franchise can already feel overcomplicated, especially for newcomers. But there are points in favour of returning to the 22nd Century, too, particularly if a series had a relatively tight focus on something like the Earth-Romulan War.

Series #6:
Captain Worf

Worf on a promo poster for *Picard* Season 3.

Along with most of the rest of the main crew members from The Next Generation, Worf will be returning in Season 3 of Picard next year. It’s no secret that actor Michael Dorn has been talking up his own “Captain Worf” idea for the better part of a decade, and with the casting announcements for Picard, part of me has been wondering if that show’s final season might lead into a Worf spin-off.

As the character with the most Star Trek appearances to date – 274, in case you were wondering – we’ve spent a lot of time with Worf already! We’ve seen our favourite Klingon wrangle with his heritage and his duty to Starfleet, gain promotions, establish friendships with two different casts of characters, become a father, get married, become a widower, and much more besides. Is there room for another chapter in Worf’s life after the events of Deep Space Nine? I still think that’s an open question!

Is there room for new Worf-focused stories?

This one really depends on how Picard Season 3 goes down. Executive producer Terry Matalas has described Picard Season 3 as being a “send-off” for the crew of The Next Generation, presumably including Worf, and that sounds pretty definitive and final. We may see some characters killed off as the season goes on, especially if Picard and the crew are facing off against some kind of galaxy-ending threat. Even if Worf survives, it’s possible that all of the characters’ stories will come to a conclusive end, and if that’s the case there may be no room – and no need – for a Captain Worf series.

But it’s also possible that Picard Season 3 will be testing the waters to see whether certain spin-off ideas are viable. We’ve already considered the possibility of a Seven of Nine and Raffi series, and that’s one possibility. But maybe there’s a chance that, if fans respond incredibly positively to Worf in his new role, he could finally take the lead in his own series.

Worf as he appeared in Season 1 of *The Next Generation*.

For me, I feel that Worf in a leading role is an untested idea, and one that may not work. Although there are nuances in Worf’s characterisation, many episodes of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine played up his Klingon traits, and while I’d never call him something like “flat” or “one-dimensional,” there’s definitely a case to be made that a character like Worf works best in a supporting role rather than a leading one.

But we can reserve judgement on that until we see what role has been created for Worf in Season 3 of Picard. Maybe he’ll get a fantastic ending to his decades-long story, one that feels conclusive and satisfying, rounding out his arc and tying up loose ends from both The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. But maybe, just maybe, he’ll establish himself as the next character deserving of a spin-off project.

So that’s it!

Paramount (and subsidiary CBS Studios) has trademarked other names associated with the Star Trek brand that may be connected with shows or films that are currently in development, but it’s very difficult to know what to make of some of them! Vague titles like Star Trek: Destiny, Star Trek: Revolution, or Star Trek: Reliant have all been trademarked over the past few years – though several of these have now lapsed and haven’t been renewed. It isn’t clear whether any or all of these names were even intended to be used for films and television shows, or whether they were meant for merchandise and other projects. The interesting-sounding Star Trek Continuum trademark, for example, isn’t connected with a film or TV show at all, but is instead an official line of awful-looking NFTs.

For now at least, these are the Star Trek projects that seem to be the most likely based on what we’ve heard through official and unofficial channels. It’s definitely possible that work is ongoing in secret to develop some completely different Star Trek projects that we can’t predict at the moment, but in terms of what may be announced in the weeks or months ahead, the projects we’ve talked about today feel the most likely.

Next month’s Star Trek Day could be the venue for a big announcement…

Although trademarks exist for Ceti Alpha V and Starfleet Academy, if it were up to me I’d pick a 25th Century series to fill the hole that will be left when Picard finishes its run. Lower Decks and Prodigy will still be representing the late 24th Century, but I think it’ll feel like something’s not right if the 25th Century that Picard has only just begun to explore is abandoned with that show’s conclusion. Not only because we won’t get to carry on the journey, but because that era feels like the natural next step for a franchise that found so much success in the 1990s with shows set in the 24th Century.

But we’ll have to wait and see what the creative team at Paramount has in store! I think it’s possible – but by no means guaranteed – that an announcement could come as soon as next month. The Star Trek Day live broadcast has promised “announcements, reveals, and surprises” in its official press release, and the inclusion of certain actors – such as Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd – could hint at something big to come.

I hope this has been a bit of fun! I tried to steer clear of baseless rumours and fan-fantasies to focus instead on concepts and pitches that are known to exist and that seem plausible. But we’ll have to wait and see whether any of them are really going to happen!

The Star Trek franchise – including all properties (and potential properties) discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Worf and the spiral of clickbait

Sat 24.04.21Sat 24.04.21Dennis

One potential news story that I opted not to cover here on the website was a recent social media post by Worf actor Michael Dorn. In a single Twitter post, Dorn wrote the following: “Just got the news, being summoned back into action. Starfleet calls. #ad”

Well, no sooner had that post hit Twitter than the Star Trek fan community began scrambling to “break” the news of Worf’s return to Star Trek. Websites, blogs, and YouTube shows all jumped on Dorn’s post, using headlines like: “Michael Dorn CONFIRMS Worf’s Return!” As the battle for clicks escalated, Trekkies online began speculating about what form Worf’s return could take, and this too began to grow and spiral out of control.

The Tweet that launched a thousand clickbait articles…

The Captain Worf series that he’s been trying to get off the ground for the better part of a decade seemed to be 100% confirmed, if you believed certain websites and channels. Others were convinced the Twitter post meant Worf would appear in Picard Season 2 or Discovery Season 4. And of course, many outlets reported their wild speculation with minimal caveats as though it were fact.

All of this hype came crashing down within 48 hours, however, when it became clear that Dorn’s Twitter post was nothing more than an advertisement for mobile game Star Trek Legends, an Apple Arcade exclusive title. Legends looks like so many other mobile games released in the last few years, and I have no desire to sign up to Apple Arcade at £5 per month just to play one mediocre-looking title. Even if it does have Worf!

Uninspired mobile games aside, I think this whole Michael Dorn saga is yet another example in a very long line of how we have to be incredibly careful how we use social media and how difficult it is to trust even supposedly “reputable” outlets. In this piece I’ll look at the issue as it relates to the Star Trek fan community in particular, but obviously these same broad points can apply to news, politics, and so on.

Michael Dorn’s post was designed to get attention. He may have written it himself, but it’s equally likely – in my opinion as someone who used to work in video games marketing – that it was written by the marketing team behind Star Trek Legends. But whoever wrote the actual words, the post was deliberately ambiguous and designed to get Trekkies talking, playing on fan hopes of the return of a major character who hasn’t been seen on screen since 2002.

Worf made his last canonical appearance in 2002’s *Star Trek: Nemesis*.

Marketers do this kind of thing all the time; it’s a nostalgia play. It isn’t the first time we’ve seen it in the Star Trek community, either. But because we’re in an age of 24/7 social media use, some of the biggest names in the online Star Trek fandom jumped on Dorn’s comment, seeing an easy way to get clicks – and thus money – for themselves.

Reading the Twitter post, and especially seeing the #ad hashtag, it should’ve been screamingly obvious that this was not connected to a new television show or film. And I have no doubt whatsoever that the social media managers, webmasters, and fan group leaders who began to write clickbaity articles and produce clickbait videos knew that for a fact. But they did so anyway. It was a topic of conversation – and an easy win. Who wouldn’t click on a video or article that screamed “Worf is coming back!” in big bold capital letters? For fans unaware of the original Twitter post, they jumped on such articles and videos hoping to learn that Worf was getting his own show or that he would appear in Picard – the natural implication of such a headline.

Worf having a role in *Picard* Season 2 was something some fans speculated about at length.

I’m lucky to have my own website, and that means I can cover the topics I want to at my own pace. I did see the Michael Dorn controversy unfold, but two things became apparent very quickly. First was that no one commenting online, no matter how large their website and following, actually knew anything substantial. And second, Dorn’s post had the #ad hashtag, which meant it was clearly connected to a product of some kind. Star Trek Legends turned out to be that product.

As a result, I chose not to cover a “story” that was a bag of nothing. I could easily have penned a short article about the prospects of a Captain Worf series and the potential for Worf to appear in Picard Season 2, Discovery Season 4, or Lower Decks Season 2. Maybe doing so would have driven traffic to the website. But it would’ve felt more than a little dishonest.

Worf in *The Next Generation* Season 7 episode *Lower Decks*.

Rumours swirl in the Star Trek fan community all the time – as indeed they do in every online community. But most of these “rumours” are clearly nonsense, based on unverified and often unspecified sources. The truth is that ViacomCBS and the creative team in charge of Star Trek generally do a good job at keeping a lid on leaks. Occasionally a story will leak ahead of an official announcement, but as we’ve seen with some big projects recently, including the new film scheduled for 2023, most of the time that is simply not the case. Yet many social media channels, fan groups, and websites insist on reporting rumour as if it were fact.

When I write speculatively here on the website, you’ll note that I always caveat what I’m saying by explaining that I have no “insider information” nor any “sources.” This is specifically to damp down any theory or speculation that I’m writing about and to clarify that it’s just guesswork on my part. Sometimes it’s educated guesswork, putting together things that seem obvious even if there’s yet to be official confirmation, but even then such a caveat is incredibly important.

Worf is a character in mobile game *Star Trek Legends*.

It’s easy for a website or social media group to fall into the trap of writing clickbait based on things like Michael Dorn’s Twitter post, but it doesn’t do anything for the Star Trek fan community. In some cases it can be actively harmful – building up hype and expectations that are obviously only going to lead to disappointment. Marketing folks need to be aware of this, as well. As much as Dorn’s post got people talking about Star Trek Legends, they deliberately set up Trekkies for disappointment by allowing Dorn to imply – albeit in a way that should’ve been easy for fans to see through – that Worf was coming back to Star Trek.

But the blame in this case doesn’t lie only with the marketing team at Star Trek Legends, who are, after all, doing their best to market a product. It lies with fan groups, websites, and social media channels who took that obvious piece of marketing and put their own spin on it, building up the hype of Worf’s possible return to Star Trek in order to drive clicks, views, and website traffic.

Worf in a teaser video for *Star Trek Legends* posted on Twitter.

This is what I mean by the “spiral” of clickbait: a slightly dishonest marketing post on social media appears. Fan websites and social media channels jump on it and take it out of context, in some cases completely disregarding or ignoring the possibility of it being marketing. As the hype bubble starts to build, more outlets and fans jump on the story, talking about it and driving more and more clicks and traffic. What began as a single post advertising a mobile game thus exploded to become a big story online, and it didn’t need to be. From the marketers’ point of view, it’s a rousing success! But for fans, at best it’s a mild disappointment.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find reliable, objective sources of information online, and it’s getting to a point where, unless something is confirmed unambiguously by an official outlet, I don’t trust it.

We all need to be careful what we read and watch, and try our best not to give in to clickbait!

Star Trek Legends is out now for iOS devices via Apple Arcade. The Star Trek franchise – including all titles mentioned above – is the copyright of ViacomCBS. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.