And here it is, Star Trek Picard has finally hit our screens.
What struck me the most about this first episode is how much confidence it had. I would even argue that this is by far the strongest series premiere of any live-action Star Trek show to date. After all, it’s no secret that Trek shows tend to struggle in finding its footing in the beginning. But this came in swinging with so much confidence as if announcing with its mere presence that it knows exactly what it wants and what it needs to be. If the rest of this season is at the level of this premiere, then I surmise we are in for a great ride!
So, we begin with a dream sequence as Blue Skies (sung by Bing Crosby, grandfather of Tasha Yar’s actress Denise Crosby) plays. A wonderful shot of the Enterprise D with Picard and Data playing poker. There is a feeling of melancholy in the scene, almost as if Picard’s own consciousness knows this is not real but he wants to keep pretending that it is. As he even says, he doesn’t want the game to end. Data is also holding 5 Queen of Hearts, which Picard frowns at. I’m not sure exactly yet what this may represent, it is possible that this could be a foreshadowing to something else down the line. The writers and director have shown to be very deliberate with their details in this show, so I would imagine this Queen of Hearts thing to have a meaning, we just may not know it yet.
This scene ends with the Mars attack that we saw in the ‘Children of Mars’ Short Trek and leads to Picard awaking rather violently from his dream to a very concerned Pitbull, Number One. The best boy. However, the most interesting part of this scene with Picard waking up and looking out into the vineyard where people are working is that he keeps saying to Number One “it’s alright”, but really, he’s not saying it to the dog, I think he’s trying to convince himself that everything is alright, even though he knows it isn’t, and we know he certainly doesn’t feel it.
Then we move locations to Greater Boston, where the nighttime skyline is filled with some great and fun easter eggs for eagle-eyed viewers, and we finally meet Dahj and her Xahean boyfriend Caler. Xahea was last heard about in Star Trek Discovery with the appearance of its young queen Po. This makes me curious if Xahea has finally joined the Federation and if Po ever revealed her innovation for recrystallizing dilithium. But this romantic date and celebration of Dahj getting into the Daystrom Institute are rudely interrupted by black-clad assassins who promptly kills her boyfriend and tries to kidnap her, commenting on how she’s not activated yet and they’ll knock her out and get the information they need later. And just as they put a bag over her head and try to knock her out, she finally “activates” and kills them all. This was a very well-choreographed and well-directed fight scene where we got to see a good amount of the action. Bravo to the stunt team and to director Hanelle Culpepper. As Dahj mourns over her boyfriend, she gets a flash of Picard.
Now we need to talk about this new opening theme sequence. Because quite frankly, this is probably one of the most beautiful and haunting melodies for a Trek theme and I could probably talk for hours about what this opening made me feel. Jeff Russo deserves an award. Seriously. He does. If you guys have not seen the Ready Room after show where Jeff Russo talks about the choices made for this theme, you really need to. Because you see the care and attention to detail that he brings into even just choosing what instruments to add to the music and what chords used to call back to the past. The flute at the beginning alluding to Picard’s time in The Inner Light, representing his past. And then the cello and the occasional chords of the TNG theme just slowed down and slightly in a different tone, all building up to what feels like a triumphant rebirth. The flute sneaks back in showing the past and present coming together for Picard. The use of the cello and strings is just perfect. It really gives a melodic and sombre feel to it.
Back at the Chateau, we meet the rest of Picard’s household, Laris and Zhaban, two Romulans living with him as housekeepers. The Picard Countdown Comics tell of their backstory as Tal Shiar agents who fell in love and eventually broken ranks with their organization. I have no doubt that backstory will come into play somehow in this story on screen. They worry over Picard, how he’s not sleeping, and they try to get him settled for this big interview. The interplay between these characters is loving and fun, with each actor playing off each other so extremely well that you’d have thought they’d known each other forever. They remind him while he may have forgotten who he is, they haven’t, and to be the captain that people remember. It’s sweet and genuine. Which plays in huge contrast to the interview that we’re about to get.
This interview drops a lot of information that paints a picture of the current state of the galaxy. The Federation had planned to help the Romulans to evacuate, Picard was heading up the building of a rescue fleet. But then rogue synths attacked Mars and destroyed the fleet, with this leading to Starfleet calling off the rescue and banning synthetic lifeforms. It’s quite a bit to swallow that the dynamics of the galaxy has changed, but tragedy often yields these kinds of results. The attack on Mars calls back to not just our real world’s 9/11 but also Star Trek Enterprise’s Xindi attack. Both situations led to a reaction out of fear and retaliation. Star Trek, for the most part, has always been focused on the militaristic lifestyle of our starship crews, but what this Picard show has done is bringing the camera a little closer to home, to Earth, to the lives of people more like ourselves in our daily routines and how their worldview may just not be the same as the Starfleet characters we’ve known for decades.
As we go on with this interview, there’s the bit where the interviewer says it’s only “Romulan lives” at stake and Picard counters her with “No. Lives.” Picard’s very powerful statement that we are all lives, doesn’t matter Romulan or not, is something that is necessary to say not just in the context of the plot, but also in the context of our current society.
Picard also points out that they still don’t know why the synths went rogue. So, I think that the synths were nothing more than someone’s means to an end. Either someone in the Federation wanted a reason for the Federation to pull back from helping Romulus, or Romulans from the Tal Shiar wanted to prevent the Federation from helping because they didn’t want to be indebted to Starfleet and the Federation. Whatever it is, it’s covert, and the synths were just the scapegoats for the attack.
Finally, the interviewer, despite having previously agreed to not ask this question, asks Picard why he left Starfleet, and Picard answers “because it was no longer Starfleet.” He angrily states that Starfleet had slunk from its duties and that the decision to call off the rescue was not just dishonourable because they had sworn to help, but also downright criminal, and he wasn’t going to be a spectator about it.
Now, there is something interesting at this moment that isn’t talked about much, and it’s that you see Zhaban and Laris watching the interview, and they hold hands. This is clearly something that hurts them too. You can see the emotions on their faces. And while this interview is focused on Picard, we should not forget that this matters to them too. This was Laris and Zhaban’s home that was destroyed, probably people they knew too that died, their families and friends. They are watching an interview that is not just disparaging their race but also discounting the meaning of their lives. And this moment will speak to anyone who has been part of any oppressed groups seeing themselves dehumanized by their lives being an “other”. Picard is standing up not just for Romulans or synthetics, but he is also standing up directly for the two of them, two refugees who have lost everything except each other. It’s a small moment, but it really meant a lot to me watching it, because I understood those feelings. And it made me connect to Laris and Zhaban so much more as characters.
Picard at this point tears into the interviewer, stating that she’s a stranger to history and stranger to war. And how it isn’t easy for those who died and those who were left behind. Now, this moment is clearly meant to call out to us viewers to realize how much of our own history that we are a stranger to, and how forgetting that history is the reason we get into the sort of messes that we have today. Finally, Picard shuts down the interview and walks away.
Later, Dahj finds Picard at the vineyard after seeing his interview. She’s clearly confused and scared, not knowing what to do, but everything inside of her tells her that she is safe with Picard. And Picard, who has every reason to turn away some stranger he doesn’t know, instead takes her hand and tries to calm her down. Not only giving her kindness and compassion but also helping her figure out what it is that she could do next. He comments on her unusual necklace, which Dahj says was a gift from her father. The two of them have a great talk about feeling like a stranger to themselves and yet feeling a connection with each other before Dahj goes to rest for the night.
Picard has another dream that night with Data asking if Picard wants to finish a painting which has no face and is a hooded figure standing overlooking an ocean. Picard says he doesn’t know how, but Data says that’s not true. The moment Picard takes the brush, he’s awoken by the clock, and he immediately turns around to look at the painting behind him hanging up on the wall, which is almost exactly the painting from the dream, only the head is turned away. Just as it seems he’s figured something out, Laris comes in to inform him that Dahj is gone. Picard is worried but he now seems to have someplace to start looking for answers and off he goes to the Starfleet Archives. After trading some funny banter with the Index program, Picard enters his archive, which is a treasure trove of easter eggs from ship models to the Captain Picard Day banner. He finds a painting that Data had done about 30 years ago, with the face of Dahj. This painting is called Daughter.
Back in France, Dahj is trying to hide when she contacts her mother. But her mother interestingly tells her to go to Picard, which Dahj notes that she hasn’t even mentioned anything about Picard. There is a moment when the image of her mother flashes, though whether this means she’s a recording or hologram or even something else, we don’t know yet. But her mother seems to be able to guide Dahj into being focused on finding Picard again. They meet up at the Starfleet Archives where a very emotional and clearly worried Picard is relieved that she’s okay but also informs her of what he’s found out about who she possibly could be. At first, Dahj rejects the possibility of her being an android, even calling them soulless murder machines like the ones that attacked Mars. But Picard insists differently, and you can so clearly tell how his love for Data has transferred to Dahj.
Dahj clearly feels like she’s losing her sense of self if she is not real, but Picard tells her that her beautiful memories are hers and that no one can touch it or take it away. Picard’s insistent kindness and compassion are just so very important. It is not always in entertainment media that we get these unabashedly kind characters, especially with male characters. So, having characters like Picard, an older white male in a place of authority, still being so kind and caring and willing to help people instead of judging them, is important. Because this allows younger generations watching this to have someone good to be their role model, to teach and instil in them that kindness is what you need to have more of in this world.
But as usual, this nice bonding moment once again is interrupted by black-clad assassins. Dahj and Picard run to the roof, with Picard visibly showing signs of physical exhaustion due to his age. Dahj fights the assassins, in the process revealing that they are Romulans. But just as Dahj is about to shoot one of them, the assassin bites down on a capsule and spews out liquid acid which gets on the gun and on Dahj’s face and her clothing. She and Picard exchanged a horrified look, she screams, and Picard tries to reach for her as the energy gun blows up and Picard is knocked back and blacks out.
This is perhaps the biggest surprise of the episode, as all the marketing had been pointing towards Dahj as the main character and we see other scenes of her in the trailer. Her death was totally unexpected.
Picard wakes up to Laris and Zhaban, and reveals that Dahj is dead, killed by Romulan assassins. But Laris and Zhaban tell him that police say he was found alone and there’s no security footage, so they speculate Dahj must have some automatic cloaking. This could also possibly mean someone within the Federation could also be in on this cover-up. Someone could have infiltrated the Federation for this purpose. Picard, now reinvigorated with a new sense of mission, delivers a powerful line that really captures his state of mind, “sitting here, after all these years, nursing my offended dignity, writing books of history people prefer to forget, I never asked anything of myself at all. I haven’t been living, I’ve been waiting to die.”
If you look back to the interview when the interviewer asks him why he left Starfleet, that he left in protest, and how angry he got. I think Picard left Starfleet to try to force their hand to help, essentially doing a last desperate bid of “if you want me then you better go help these people”. And Starfleet basically called his bluff and let him go. That is the “offended dignity” that he’s been nursing. It’s more than just Starfleet and the Federation decided to withdraw, he felt a personal betrayal. The organization that he had done everything for didn’t just give up on their own ideas but also gave up on him, so, therefore, he lost faith in them as well. But no more self-pity, he’s going to not be a spectator anymore.
Picard goes to the Daystrom Institute in Okinawa and meets one of our new characters Dr. Agnes Jurati. We learn that the synths that attacked Mars came from this lab and now since the ban, it’s basically a ghost town. We also learn that Bruce Maddox, a character we previously met before in The Next Generation who wanted to disassemble Data and use that knowledge to build a new synthetics, has disappeared since the ban and may have used some radical new idea to create Dahj. But there’s more, this cloning process makes “twins”, so there’s another out there. One must wonder if Maddox created the twins on his own or was he coerced by someone? And where could he be? And is there more than just a pair of twins?
The last scene takes place on a Romulan Reclamation site, with Narek walking through the smoke to the thunderous new update to the Romulan theme from The Original Series’ Balance of Terror. He meets up with Dahj’s twin, a Dr. Soji Asha. Narek comments on her necklace, to which Soji remarks are made by her father and given to her and her twin sister. This has Narek bringing up the loss of his own brother, clearly to get Soji’s sympathy, referring to her spending all day fixing broken people and surely she wouldn’t want to spend her off-hours doing that too. Soji seems taken with Narek, but I have a feeling that relationship will not turn out the way any of them think it will.
The camera then pulls back to reveal the site is in a Borg cube!
Once again, this was a solid start, setting up great characters and mystery, and reminding us why we love Jean-Luc Picard. Patrick Stewart is as brilliant as ever, imbuing Picard with a sense of growth and compassion that befits the character since we had last seen him two decades ago. But the breakout star of this episode is definitely Isa Briones. She was not only able to handle all the emotional complexities of Dahj and all the hard stunt work but also going toe to toe with Patrick Stewart in such vulnerable and powerful scenes without breaking a sweat. And at the last minute coming back as Soji and bringing such a different feel to that character.
With a great cast and great story to boot, I cannot wait to see where the story will take us next!
Engage!
Star Trek: Picard airs Thursdays at 00:01 PST on CBS All Access in the USA, 21:00pm on CTV SCi-Fi/Crave TV in Canada and airs Fridays on Amazon Prime Video Internationally.
