Star Trek Picard calls back to everything except its own first season in a bold start to season two
THE STAR GAZER opens season two of STAR TREK PICARD at a frenetic pace, all the better to hurry the audience on from paying too much attention to the obvious inter-seasonal overhaul the series has undergone since the chaotic and arbitrary finale of its freshman season.
The cold in media res open – which results in the apparent destruction and death of our entire main cast – gives way to a post-titles caption of “48 hours earlier” meaning the episode has the gaul to use the same cliffhanger twice, although admittedly both times to good effect.
Summoned to the far reaches of deep space by an emergency and emergent threat, Picard – now Chancellor of Starfleet Academy finds himself aboard the USS Stargazer face to face with the Borg Queen who has an unusual demand: membership of the Federation. But before they even get to filling in the required paperwork, the Borg Queen attempts to seize control of the ship and Picard responds by initiating the self-destruct sequence, a sequence which transports him to a very familiar place – and an encounter with a very familiar face.
It’s fitting that we visit with Guinan here in THE STAR GAZER, because the showrunners have clearly taken a leaf or two out of the El-Aurian playbook and listened – really listened to the criticism of season one. The characterisations are more polished and the placement of characters feels more comfortable – Rios is captain of his own Starfleet ship (well, sort of – more on that later), Picard still plays a role in Starfleet, Elnor has enrolled in Starfleet Academy and Seven is a lone Fenris Ranger (although the abrupt and out-of-nowhere pairing of her and Raffi from Season One’s closing few minutes hasn’t been abandoned). Even actual murderer Dr Jurati has been officially cleared on a technicality. It’s almost enough to forget that Picard is a magical robot grandpa and that the series still hasn’t figured out what the actual point of the synthetic storyline in season one was (witness how cursorily Soji (Isa Briones) is discarded).
It seems like an off choice to kick off a new season with an ouroboros story structure which effectively eats its own tail as it shows us Picard’s apparent death and, then, the two days leading up to it but of course this is Star Trek, and what’s more, modern STAR TREK so it’s actually a kind of a metatextual nod to the way the current Kurtzman era is constantly cannibalising previous cannon in an attempt to create something new, but in an oddly inept way. For example, there’s the gratuitous nod to the USS Stargazer, Rios’ current command, which shares its name with the ship that Picard commanded prior to assuming the helm of the Enterprise-D. It’s a factor the characters may have some nostalgic reaction to (although they don’t) but it’s barely of any significance to the audience, having only appeared in a pretty crappy early season one episode of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. It’s from this ship, though, that the episode takes its name and roots it in a flashback to Picard’s youth involving his mother as the series sets out to introduce yet more retconned baggage into its eponymous lead’s back story.
It’s gratifying that THE STAR GAZER doesn’t trot out its marquee guest stars straight away. Guinan doesn’t appear until the middle of the episode and the big draw is saved for the final few moments, during which the ageing of the ageless is addressed brilliantly. That ageing is even acknowledged is a huge step forward for the STAR TREK PICARD. One of the principal failings of the first season was an abject failure to confront Picard’s mortality (indeed it went out of its way to circumvent it) in the way the movies did for Kirk and company. Here the need is more acute than it was in the movie heyday of Shatner etc. because Patrick Stewart conspicuously doesn’t have the air of vocal authority he used to; he sounds frail and so it’s good they’re beginning to acknowledge, if not confront, it this time out – at least for now.
In broad sweeps, THE STAR GAZER does enough to whet the appetite and there’s enough good stuff here (the conference table scene is one of the few Next Generation call-backs which actually works) but it’s in the small details that the series continues to frustrate. It’s nice to see the canine Number One back for a customary first episode cameo but the wine-harvesting scene begs the question if you’re beaming the grapes off the vine, why not just use replicators? And later, during the confrontation with the Borg, Rios orders his crew to cease fire multiple times and every time he gives the order, it’s ignored. It’s a really bizarre moment which does nothing but undermine the character and disrupt the drama on screen. However, the fact I’m needing to properly nit-pick to find fault in the episode is a pretty good sign. Season 2 is off to a good start. Let’s boldly go!
