No one directs the Borg quite like Jonathan Frakes, and this week’s episode of Star Trek: Picard proves that as once again the sequences with the Borg Queen are a major highlight. Frakes’ talent as a director also helps “Fly Me To The Moon” stand out in spite of somewhat uneven pacing. Picard, at last, meets the Watcher, and from there the season’s main plot begins to thicken.
Materializing in an ordinary-looking apartment, Picard finally gets to make his case to the Watcher and realizes she is not Laris at all. Guinan’s Supervisor identifies herself as Tallinn and describes her purpose on Earth: like others of her profession (namely Gary Seven from TOS: ”Assignment Earth”), she is tasked with a singular purpose, that of protecting one individual, “a single string in a grand tapestry to which I am not privy.” After Picard identifies himself and his purpose and Tallinn expresses her dislike of time travellers, the identity of her charge is revealed: Renee Picard, an astronaut and pilot of the upcoming Europa Mission, and apparently Jean-Luc’s ancestor.
Alone aboard La Sirena, the Borg Queen discovers a new chorus: she can hear the cellular communications commonplace on 21st century Earth, and she intercepts these frequencies to make a call to the French National Police reporting a woman in distress at the chateau. This brief sequence is elevated thanks to Frakes’ directing and the mesmerizing performance of Annie Wersching, furthered along by auditory and stylistic callbacks to similar parts of Star Trek: First Contact.
Raffi and Seven are within sight of the ICE bus carrying Rios, and after a heartfelt argument about their motivations, Seven disables the bus with her tricorder. Rios tells the other detainees, in Spanish, to get ready, and then after an ICE officer moves against him, Rios and the others begin taking over the disabled bus. As an ICE officer draws his gun, Raffi stuns him, and she and Seven begin freeing the detainees. The reunited time travellers say their goodbyes to the others, including one whom Raffi briefly thought was Elnor.
Back at Tallinn’s place, she and Picard talk about Renee, whom Tallinn describes as remarkable despite having never met her. Unfortunately, Renee is not without her struggles, dealing with anxiety and depression. The two then observe a therapy session, where Picard recognizes Renee’s therapist: none other than Q, and he’s actively trying to convince her that she’s not ready for her pending spaceflight.
As previewed briefly in “Penance,” we meet a new member of the Soong family in this episode, played by Brent Spiner, as Dr Adam Soong makes a case for continued funding for his genetic research. His daughter, Kore, suffers from a genetic defect that makes sunlight poisonous, and Soong wants to unlock human perfection by removing all such defects from the genome. Some of his research, however, had been both unethical and illegal, and the board he had appealed to revokes his license and funding. Returning home, he receives the cryptic message “I can help” on his computer screen, and his 3D printer then makes a business card with a stylized letter Q and a phone number. (Side note: if you dial the number on the card, 323-634-5667, you’ll be treated to a hilarious message from Q!)
A French National Police officer responds to the call to Chateau Picard, and eventually makes his way into the cloaked La Sirena, where he finds the suspended Borg Queen who hails him as “my hero.” She grabs him with a tentacle, and then Jurati arrives with a shotgun from the chateau. The Queen taunts her, saying she was the only one who ever truly saw Jurati, but Agnes still pulls the trigger.
Back in LA, Soong meets Q in a diner, and after some spirited back and forth delightfully played by Spiner and John DeLancie, Q gives the doctor a small blue vial and tells him to analyze it. Q would give Soong what he wants before they discuss what Q wanted.
Picard and Tallinn resolve to work together to protect Renee and ensure she makes her historic flight. They appear aboard La Sirena shortly after Raffi, Seven, and Rios beam back, finding Jurati covered in the policeman’s blood and the Queen hanging apparently dead. The officer is fine, though, even with his spleen in a box, and the others drag him past Picard and Tallinn; Picard assures the Supervisor his crew is trustworthy. The group meets in the chateau and comes up with a plan to infiltrate a gala being held before the Europa Mission crew enters quarantine before their launch.
At his home, Soong checks out the vial and finds it to be a perfect cure for his daughter’s condition. He administers it to her then retracts a drone shield which looks an awful lot like the solar shield over Earth in the dark future. Kore enjoys her time in the sun and takes a swim, then she suddenly falls into intense pain and her father hurriedly puts the shield back up. He then contacts Q, asking if he has the real cure instead of something that wears off, saying “if you do, then I am a hostage to you, sir.” Q replies: “Does the name Picard mean anything to you?”
Jurati volunteers to go to the gala, complete with a new identity. But it isn’t the only thing she brought to the party. As she’s apprehended by suspicious security guards, another voice can be heard, and we see what happened after Jurati fired the shotgun: the injured Queen injected her with nanoprobes. Agnes isn’t alone anymore.
“Fly Me To The Moon” brought the season’s plot much further along than previous instalments, however, I can’t help but feel that things are nonetheless slowing down. Maybe it’s because this is the halfway point of the season and so much still needs to happen, but it just feels like we’re going back to the Season 1 level of pacing.
Hopefully, things pick up when Frakes returns with “Two of One.”
Picard airs on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon Prime Video
