Everything old is new again!
In the 25th Century…we find not Buck Rogers, but Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) apparently on the run from some alien marauders and trying to protect something…or someone? Welcome back…to The Next Generation.
The fact the title card welcoming us to the 25th century is in exactly the same font as the similar welcome at the very start of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Kahn feels like a statement of intent; an olive branch of reassurance for an audience twice bitten and thrice shy of Picard Season 3 just being another ramshackle assortment of nostalgia and half-thought-out ideas that things will be different this time. There’s a definite sense of a rebrand going on here: a necessary and long overdue course correction that sees Star Trek Picard finally give the fans what they wanted – and expected – all along: a Next Generation reunion show. It’s somehow fitting, then, that our first glance of Picard (Patrick Stewart) himself is while he’s in the process of packing away the things of his past and giving away souvenirs from his storied career as he prepares to vacate the vineyard, a location that so far has been an incongruous Earth-bound anchor for the character. But, just like when you were a kid and had to tidy your room, sometimes when you’re packing things away, you discover something you’d forgotten. In this case, it’s his old (old) uniform and his old communicator badge, chirruping away like it was yesterday. In terms of analysing the signal, Picard’s vineyard computer seems to be about as useful as a present-day LLM but once he manages to decode the signal, it turns out to be an urgent SOS from Doctor Beverly Crusher, whom nobody has heard from in twenty years.
Having received an urgent coded message from Beverly, Picard leaps into action by sitting by the fireside for a chat with Llaris (Orla Brady), a character who’s rewarded for being Picard’s love interest – and teaching him to love again – in Season 2 by being summarily written out almost immediately as Jean-Luc sets off on yet another adventure. His first port of call: Captain William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), who’s returned to active duty disappointingly to avoid spending time with Troi and his daughter. I’m not sure why TV series can’t just let some couples be happy together – but clearly, it’s still a trope in the 25th century and beyond. I’m sure they’ll work it out somehow.
The Next Generation certainly seems to be positioning “The Crusher Cut-off” as the inciting mystery of this third season – it turns out it wasn’t just Jean-Luc that got the cold shoulder but all of the Enterprise crew – and to find out what’s happened/ happening to Beverly, Riker and Picard concoct an excuse to visit Riker’s old command, the USS Titan, under the guise of a surprise inspection. The Titan’s current captain, Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) can barely disguise his disdain for the decorated officers but at least there’s a friendly face to greet them in first officer Commander Hansen (Jeri Ryan).
Elsewhere, Raffi (Michelle Hurd) is working undercover for Starfleet Intelligence on the planet M’Talas Prime in search of a weapon which was stolen from the Daystrom Station and may be used for a terrorist attack – an attack that comes in the form of the destruction of a Starfleet Recruitment Centre despite Raffi’s best efforts to prevent it.
Meanwhile, having succeeded in persuading Seven to disobey the orders of her Captain and take them to the coordinates provided by Beverly, Picard and Riker find themselves trapped on Beverly’s damaged ship – the good Doctor herself is in a faltering life support capsule – and at the mercy of the marauder ship which can best be described as Zack Snyder’s Joel Shumacher’s Batman & Robin’s Batwing who seem intent on capturing Beverly’s mysterious shipmate Jack (Ed Speleers).
It’s an action-packed and efficient episode to kick off this third season, shrugging off the disappointments of the past and warping forward with a set-up that’s heavily influenced by Star Trek II and Star Trek III after Picard Season 2’s wholesale copying from The Voyage Home. It’s a little ironic that for a Next Generation reunion show, it’s got a lot of love and respect for the original series movies, but newly minted solo showrunner Terry Matalas, a veteran of Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek Enterprise as Branon Braga’s assistant, is wise enough to know if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it, just use it and if it is broke – like most of the two previous seasons – just ditch it.
It’s fun that the secret weapon Raffi was on the hunt for turns out to be the Aperture Weapon from the game Portal and there’s intrigue in who her handler may turn out to be? Someone new? Someone old? Or someone old old? Liam Shaw is an immediately interesting character, if not immediately likeable. Asshole-coded Starfleet officers are, of course, nothing new to the franchise but they’re usually one-and-done guest stars, not series regulars so it’ll be interesting to see how he develops. Amidst all his cynicism and grumbling, though, I’m a little surprised he doesn’t share my main complaint: why are 25th Century Starfleet bridges so dark? Perhaps that’s above his paygrade as well, an odd expression for a society and a service which has evolved beyond the need for money.
It’s by far the strongest opening episode for Star Trek Picard and, probably, current era Trek. I’ve been burned before, though, so I’ll be keeping my shields raised for the next few episodes at least.
