Picard suffers a Data security breach.

Dominion is a hell of a title, promising a lot that this episode doesn’t quite deliver on. But as it gives us plenty of other things to enjoy it’s not that much of a problem.

With the Titan hiding out amongst the derelict ships in the Chin’Toka Scrapyard, Seven takes the opportunity to reach out to an old friend to see if Starfleet has captured Riker. That old friend is Tuvok – except its not! It’s Fauxvok, another Changeling infiltrator. It’s a neat scene showing just how dire the circumstances have become and how isolated the crew of the Titan are, and Tim Russ plays the hell out of it.

Picard has come to the conclusion that the Changelings want to create a perfect replica of him to target Starfleet’s upcoming celebrations for the 250th Frontier Day, which is quite the leap of ego if not logic. While Geordi attempts to maintain Data’s control of the synthetic body as it is occasionally overcome by the other personalities, Picard devises a plan to trap Vadic and her crew on the Titan with force fields, using Jack as bait which seems initially successful.

Face to face at last, Picard and Beverly interrogate Vadic who drops some bombshell lore (small ‘l’) and confesses she is hunting Jack for someone else but before they can get all the information they need, Lore (capital ‘L’) assumes control of the android body and locks the crew out of the Titan’s systems, lowering the forcefields containing Vadic’s forces and allowing them to sweep through the ship.

With Seven, Shaw and the rest of the bridge crew captured and Vadic in de facto control of the Titan, the changeling issues an invitation to Jack: if he wants to know his true nature, surrender to her.

It’s quite incredible how many “bottle shows” Picard Season Three has strung together and yet never felt claustrophobic or limited because there’s just so much going on. Here, the focus splits between Geordi, Data and Picard, and Jack and the rest of the crew as they try simultaneously to restore Data and trap Vadic. The compromised prefix code is a neat conceit that delivers a few important plot points in one fell swoop: it lets the crew know Riker is alive, and that he is not held prisoner by Starfleet but is instead being held by Vadic aboard the Shrike. It also tips them off that Vadic is on her way to their location allowing them time to prepare their trap. During the set-up, there’s time for a little more budding romance banter between Jack and Sydney La Forge (Ashlei S Chestnut). They have a cute chemistry although I doubt either father would approve. In any event, sweet as it is, I suspect it will become another one of Star Trek Picard’s forgotten flirtations given the series’ inability to handle romance at all. Perhaps it’s just there to add an additional layer of intrigue to the moments where it seems like Jack can hear her thoughts and, eventually, seemingly take control of her. Whatever’s going on it’s definitely not Irumodic syndrome and we’re definitely on track to retcon Picard’s longstanding genetic anomaly for good – or ill.

It’s interesting to see how blasé Picard and Geordi are when discussing the feasibility of erasing Lore to free Data: it’s like Tuvix except nobody gives a shit about the morality of exterminating a sentient being for convenience. Brent Spiner, of course, has always loved the opportunity to play more than one character and here he gets everything he could have wished for, playing multiple personalities simultaneously. He hasn’t had this much fun since TNG’s Masks.

Amanda Plummer gets a real moment to shine here as, held temporarily captive, she gets the chance to monologue a little, explaining that she was one of ten Changelings whom Starfleet scientists experimented on to develop a breed of super-spies. Inevitably they fought back and escaped, swearing revenge against the entire Federation and adopting the physical form of her tormentor. When Beverly confirms her story, Picard realises he has no choice but to kill Vadic but before he can do so, the entirely predictable emergence and betrayal of Lore creates chaos as he locks out the Titan’s systems and lowers the forcefields. The idea that Starfleet created the mutated changelings is a compelling one that doesn’t quite get enough time to be explored in all its ramifications thanks to the focus on action. It also still begs the question, who is Vadic ultimately working for?

There’s an element here, again, of conveniently incompetent heroes. Like the earlier fool-me-one faux pas with the portal weapon, here the risk of Lore doing exactly what he ends up doing was all too obvious, yet Geordi is blind to it because it will allow the enemy to gain the upper hand and deliver a cliffhanger. It also makes Vadic seem nigh on infallible, and as Game Of Thrones showed us with Ramsay Bolton, infallible antagonists quickly become boring. Vadic’s overdue for a proper comeuppance, so hopefully the series won’t leave us waiting too much longer.