There He Is Looking at Starships Again
Review: Star Trek: Picard Flavour 2 premiere "The Star Gazer"
Admiral Jean-Luc Picard is back on the silvery screen, as Star Trek: Picard debuts its first episode of flavor two. Things are quite different from when nosotros final saw Picard and his merry band of misfits. "The Star Gazer" wastes no time in jumping into action, delivering fans a primer for what to expect this season, with numerous easter eggs thrown in for skilful mensurate. Let'south break information technology downward.
The episode's cold open shows coiffure members on some unknown Federation starship scrambling during an attack. The photographic camera follows iii of them as they brand their mode to the bridge – a bridge that hosts a uniformed Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) in the middle chair, along with Admiral Picard (Patrick Stewart) alongside him. Also on the chaotic bridge is Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), and information technology'southward quickly articulate that there is a Borg-like enemy on the bridge, and Picard initiates the self-destruct.
As far as cold opens go, this 1 is a doozy. By the end of it, major questions for the viewer already arise. Likewise wondering what this threat is facing Picard, one has to wonder when Rios, the man who swore off Starfleet later on its handling of a disastrous and personally devastating start contact scenario, regained his committee and took command of a starship. One too wonders what Dr. Jurati, the woman who killed her lover in an attempt to cease the much-feared day of reckoning by god-like synthetic beings, is doing on the bridge.
Later on the master titles (which are as beautiful as ever and surely contain many hints of what'south to come up this season), we go back in time 48 hours, when Picard is celebrating an heady day of the winery season. This pastoral life was how the first season began, but this time Picard is clearly more energetic. Recollect, the serial finale saw him assume control of a golem, a torso that is in better health than his original mankind and claret. Information technology'southward advisable, then, that this scene is accompanied by "Time Is On My Side" by Irma Thomas. Seeing this happier Picard is a welcome sight subsequently witnessing him depressed and "waiting to die" for much of the commencement season.
After the solar day's events, Picard sits down with Laris (Orla Brady) to decompress, and it's in this scene that we are confronted with a major change, one that haunts Picard through the episode: he has developed feelings for Laris. What does Zhaban (Jamie McShane), Laris' life-long partner and beau former Tal Shiar operative, have to say well-nigh this? Nothing, because he's expressionless. Yep, Picard's writers decided to kill Zhaban off-screen, and we are never told how or why the housekeeper died. Alas, it provides an opportunity for Laris and Picard to begin to possibly kindle a romance, although Picard does finish himself from kissing the Romulan and opts instead to ready for his big mean solar day tomorrow.
Adjacent, we get a quick look into Picard's mind, equally he flashes back to a primal moment in his childhood. The young Picard (Dylan Von Halle) apparently had a rough upbringing. His father appears to take been abusive toward Picard'southward mom, Yvette (Madeline Wise), and Yvette seemed to exist a stabling presence in Picard's life. (Interestingly, Patrick Stewart has publicly discussed how his ain male parent was abusive, so that aspect of the actor's life has seemingly made its way into his Star Expedition character.) One of Yvette's favorite sayings to her son was to ever "wait up" at the stars to notice answers. As present-24-hour interval Picard looks up to the stars equally he remembers his childhood, nosotros encounter a far-flung area of space, where an innocent Akira-grade ship gets knocked effectually past a green rift that forms in space.
The episode briefly touches on what Soji Asha (Isa Briones) has been doing since the Federation lifted the ban on synthetics. She has been playing diplomat, and she is currently meeting with a group of Deltans. Jurati is with her, but soon the pair are separated as Rios enlists Jurati for a mission. We besides find out that the burgeoning human relationship between Rios and Jurati that began in season ane didn't last in the year since, which leads to some awkward, if not comedic, tension between the 2 interact on the span.
Yeah, the rift attracts the attention of more than simply a random Akira-form: Rios' new transport, grandly revealed to be the U.South.Due south. Stargazer (unless y'all watched a recent The Set Room episode, in which case this surprise was spoiled.). This is a ship Rios captains with the same "make information technology so" assertion as his predecessor, which Jurati keenly calls the "burden of legacy". This Stargazer is clearly a refit of the ship that Picard once commanded, and she is hit. Only she's not just on-screen for bear witness, as Rios is tasked with investigating that mysterious rift that formed in space. The rift emits a distorted signal that is actually multiple languages smashed together, and only after deciphering the signal does the message become articulate: "Assist united states, Picard," followed by the entirety of Article fifteen – the department of the Federation Lease that allows entry into the organisation.
Picard is keeping himself decorated not merely as a vineyard owner, but chancellor of Starfleet University – and again, it'south a pleasant sight to see a more than invigorated Picard than who we saw in much of the first season. At a ceremony celebrating new Starfleet Academy graduates, Picard spotlights the first full-blooded Romulan graduate, Elnor (Evan Evagora), and invites them all to always "look up" at the stars, every bit Picard's female parent used to tell him. Elnor, think, was merely a boy when Picard outset met him during the Romulan supernova disaster, and the Starfleet admiral became a male parent figure for the warrior. Now, Picard is clearly excited to see Elnor follow in his footsteps, and gifts him a book written by Spock about the Vulcan's days as ambassador on Romulus.
"The older I get, the more I believe that the true Final Borderland is fourth dimension. In command, as in life, what we exercise in crunch often weighs less heavily than what we wish we had done. What could have been. Fourth dimension offers many opportunities, but information technology rarely offers second chances."
Picard to the Starfleet Academy graduating class, in what may very well exist foreshadowing for how season two plays out for the admiral.
After the graduation ceremony, we learn what's upward with Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd). She is at present back with Starfleet, and gets her ain assignment on the… wait for information technology… U.S.S. Excelsior (the same ship Elnor is assigned to). Yes, this seems to be the namesake of the ship we saw in The Original Series movies, once captained by Hikaru Sulu. Other legacy ships we know, such as the ill-fated U.S.S Grissom, what appears to be the USS Shenzhou, and of course the Stargazer have refitted versions of those original ships. As you can imagine, knowing these vessels exist is a great bit of fan service. Hopefully, nosotros'll come across these ships in activeness in the future.
Picard, equally he ponders his romantic interests and how to precede, decides to visit an old friend, someone who he feels he can go to for advice. Arriving in Los Angeles, Picard walks into a bar on 10 Forrad Artery (of course), and meets Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), tending bar as e'er. Guinan detects Picard is bothered by something far more complex than the usual interstellar negotiations, hostile enemies, or anything else the pair accept witnessed in their time together. It's a matter of the heart that weighs down the admiral, and Giunan ultimately assesses that the answers he seeks are not in the stars, simply in his heart, and that in that location is one final frontier he has yet to conquer.
To this show's credit, Guinan's cameo doesn't seem similar purely fan service, as some other cameos in recent Star Trek have (we're looking at you, Tom Paris). Instead, the wise El-Aurian peers securely into Picard's soul and urge him to explore the feelings he is trying to simultaneously express and repress. Interestingly, we see that there is an attribute of Picard's personal life that he has never talked nearly with Guinan, a reason why he is so hesitant to form committed relationships. Might it take something to practice with the calumniating human relationship his parents had?
Back on Earth, Picard gets a visit from Admiral Sally Whitley (April Grace) and informs him that this betoken is asking for him straight. Without even maxim cheerio to Laris, Picard quickly makes the journey from his vineyard to the Stargazer to help Rios deal with the threat. It's intriguing, to say the least, that an entity capable of opening holes in spacetime wants to bring together the Federation via Picard himself. On the Stargazer, Picard reunites with Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), who had detected the rift on her ship, La Sirena. Yes, Seven now commands Rios' quondam ship while the captain is on the Stargazer, as she continues working with the Fenris Rangers to help those in need.
Picard appreciates how sleek the newer ship looks ("the older these refits get, the newer they look"), only the rift doesn't go out much fourth dimension for much remembrance or reunions. Picard tries to contact the mysterious rift, and this communication triggers the arrival of a huge Borg ship and not a blueprint we've seen earlier. Before long, the Federation sends a fleet (including the Excelsior) to rendezvous with the Stargazer in example this contact takes a incorrect plough.
7 of Ix asserts that the Borg send must be destroyed, a opinion she understandably takes thanks to her traumatic Borg history. However, Picard and Jurati both opine that there's a chance to create an alliance with the Borg – at least, that'due south what their message to Picard indicated – and that hazard should non be wasted. Things become due south, all the same, when the Borg demand their Queen comes aboard the Stargazer, fifty-fifty though Rios tries to end information technology.
The entity that transports onto the Federation transport'south span is not at all similar anything Borg we've seen before. She is clad in black, intricately shielded armor of some kind. Her face is hidden, and she quickly becomes aggressive when she tries to take control of not just the Stargazer, but the rest of the Federation fleet. Picard, knowing that the Borg cannot be allowed to control a Federation armada, arms the ship's self-destruct. Before the Stargazer tin can be destroyed, however, the Borg Queen gets Picard's attention and tells him to "await up." Why would this entity know what Picard'southward mom used to say to her son?
Then, we've reached the bespeak of the cold open, but now we run across Picard transported somehow to what looks like his vineyard at habitation, just it'due south non at nevertheless place he merely left. The house is in disarray, the planet'south temper above is protected by a solar shield, and Picard finds he has a constructed servant, the kind of android nosotros saw attack Mars in flavour one. Furthermore, Picard finds a painting of a younger, evil-looking version of himself, clad in a black Starfleet uniform.
Understandably, this alarms Picard, and in his confusion, he hears a familiar voice and sees a familiar face up: Q (John de Lancie). A immature, TNG-era Q, in fact, who immediately acknowledges Picard is much older than the last fourth dimension the two crossed paths (in the TNG series finale) and quips that he will catch upwards to Picard's historic period. In a flash of light, Q turns into the current day, John de Lancie. Q reminds Picard of their last come across, where the god-similar beingness asserted to the then-captain that humanity's trial (to evidence to the Q Continuum that they are not a barbarous race) never ends, and welcomes Picard to the "very end of the road not taken," a reference presumably to what would have happened to Picard if he had made different choices in life.
So, Picard seems to be in for quite the journey. The admiral was understandably frustrated by seeing Q once more, and nosotros're psyched to see what the trickster has in shop for his old friend. It seems this season will explore parts of Picard that we oasis't really delved into before. His loneliness through his century-long life is communicable up with him. Fourth dimension is weighing on his mind, and his babyhood experiences are bubbling to the surface in a way that is impacting his livelihood, but to what end? Every bit far equally premieres become, "The Star Gazer" works itself up to a frantic momentum and gets fans properly excited for what comes next, whatever that may exist.
Stray Thoughts:
- Possibly in response to criticism received for having a massive fleet of most identical ships in the Picard season one finale, we were happy to run into this episode feature numerous familiar Starfleet ships as they gathered near the rift. Just a few we noticed during the cursory shots of the fleet were: Sovereign-form, Nebula-form, Luna-class, Inquiry-form, Excelsior-class, and Akira-form. Seeing these 24thursday century starships again is and then great, especially since they were sorely missed in season i.
- Deltans, the species Soji is seen talking to, were first seen in Star Expedition: The Motility Picture, as Lt. Ilia was a member of that species.
- Sulu gets a lot of dear in this episode, every bit not only the namesake of his ship, the Excelsior, is in "The Star Gazer," just we hear in one scene that there is a ship called the Hikaru Sulu.
- While we would normally say the arrival of most of our major characters at the rift would exist a chiliad coincidence, we don't know at this point how much of what nosotros've seen is Q's handiwork, so possibly it's all part of an elaborate plan. Leaning into coincidences was a major weakness of this evidence'due south first season, and then we'll be on the lookout if season two improves in this manner.
- Is it just us, or does Rios suffer from a severe lack of leadership during the Borg Queen assail on his bridge? All he does is stand in that location, and when he does issue orders ("stop firing!") his crew does not follow them.
- Luckily, the younger version of Q looks quite okay. A not bad heart volition notice some indications that it is a deep false, simply in our opinion nosotros're glad they didn't go for Picard's flavor one Data arroyo, where Brent Spiner was de-aged via CGI to mixed results. For Star Wars fans, we liken the quality of de-anile John de Lancie to The Volume of Boba Fett's Luke and not The Mandalorian's Luke, which is a skilful thing.
- Another aspect of Patrick Stewart's life that has been assimilated into Picard is the actor's fondness for pit bulls, and then it was nice to meet Number One once more after non seeing him since early in season ane.
- April Grace previously played transporter principal Maggie Hubbell in v episodes of The Side by side Generation.
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Star Trek: Picard season ii will consist of ten episodes and will drop weekly on Thursdays. The cast includes Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Orla Brady, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, and Brent Spiner. This flavor's cast also includes Annie Wersching and special guest stars Whoopi Goldberg and John de Lancie.
The first trailer for Picard flavor two premiered dorsum in September of last year, during the Paramount+ Star Trek Twenty-four hour period event. The second trailer fabricated its debut in January.
The series has already been picked up for a tertiary season, which was filmed simultaneously alongside season 2.
Stay tuned to TrekNews.cyberspace for all the latest news onStar Trek: Picard,Star Trek: Foreign New Worlds,Star Trek: Discovery,Star Expedition: Lower Decks,Star Trek: Prodigy, and more.
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Source: https://treknews.net/2022/03/03/review-star-trek-picard-201-star-gazer/
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