Beverly Crusher is in trouble – big enough trouble that she needs some serious help from her old friend and former captain, Jean-Luc Picard. And when he receives her distress call, Picard is desperate to help as quickly as possible. There’s just one problem – Crusher has told him not to involve Starfleet. Can Picard and his former first officer Will Riker figure out a way to help Crusher before it’s too late?
It won’t have escaped anyone’s notice that there’s currently a lot of new Star Trek. So much of it, in fact, that I’ve had to scale back my blogging ambitions. Apart from Picard, which I will attempt to blog as it airs, I will be going back and blogging the rest at a later date. So watch this space, but not too closely, and if you have anything you particularly want me to blog about, comment below.
In the meantime, let’s get back to Picard, which has just kicked off its third and final season. As Enterprise did two decades before, Picard has largely ditched the attempt to go in its own direction, and has instead resorted to pulling in as much fanservice as it can. This is Picard’s swansong, and all his old friends have showed up to wish him well.
The first episode kicks off a new plotline in which Picard must enlist the help of some old friends to assist Beverly Crusher. At the same time, Raffi Musiker is trying to track down some quantum tunnelling weapons. We know from the trailers that Amanda Plummer will soon be showing up as this season’s big bad, so clearly we’re just setting up exactly how unspeakably evil she is.
After seasons one and two, I’m not expecting too much from the plot – the bar I’m setting is that it doesn’t disappoint me too badly. However, I do have two issues with his episode. Firstly, why do all the action scenes have to take place in the dark, so that I can barely tell what’s going on. Secondly, I take offence to the idea that playing remixes of classic Star Trek themes will overwhelm my nostalgia senses so much that I’ll gloss over any flaws in the plot.
Characters
- Jean-Luc Picard is back in LaBarre with Laris, with the implication being that they have settled into a happy relationship. Laris is busy with work, and although Picard has technically retired and is meant to be writing his memoirs, he longs for one last adventure. Said adventure will, of course, be this final season of Picard.
Never let yourself remember that Picard is still in a golem body. - William Riker is still a captain in Starfleet, but he no longer has a ship to command. He also seems to be having some family difficulties, as he mentions that Deanna and Kestra will be glad of some time away from him.
- Geordi LaForge is now in charge of the Federation museum, and his daughter is an ensign on the Titan.
- Seven of Nine is now a commander in Starfleet, and is first officer on the Titan, where her captain insists she go by the name Annika Hanson. Seven doesn’t seem to feel particularly at home in Starfleet, despite having given it a go on Janeway and Picard’s recommendation.
- Raffi Musiker is now working for Starfleet Intelligence, trying to track down a quantum tunnelling weapon. Although her cover is that of a junkie ex-Starfleet officer, it seems that she might have indeed fallen back into alcoholic ways at some point.
- Beverly Crusher is out exploring the far reaches of Federation space with her son Jack, and seems to have run into some trouble.
Who is Jack Crusher?
Beverly now has a son named Jack, and the implication seems to be that he’s Picard’s son (although it’s an odd move to name your son by another man after your deceased husband). Let’s look at the evidence:
- Picard tells Laris that he and Beverly had a go at being lovers, implying that an intimate relationship briefly existed between them some time between the events of the TNG films and Picard.
- Some years ago, Beverly cut off all contact with her old friends from the Enterprise, possibly because she found out she was pregnant and didn’t want anyone to After all, if the galaxy knew about Picard’s child, that could put said child in danger.
- When Jack first meets Picard, he seems about to say something along the lines of “hi Dad” after introducing himself.
Notes and References
- Isn’t it lucky that Picard still had his old comm badge after all these years, and that he just happened to hear it going off?
- Given that Beverly told Picard not to trust Starfleet, why was his first course of action to go to Starfleet captain Riker, and for them to use a Starfleet ship to get to their destination, instead of chartering something independent?
- Even after all these years, Picard is still using “4-7-Alpha-Tango” as his password.
- The “Red Lady” is a statue of Rachel Garrett, captain of the Enterprise-C.
- The “quantum tunnelling” weapon seems to work in the same way as the Portal Gun from the Portal series of videogames.
- We shouldn’t expect Star Trek to be any good at having plausible encryption schemes, but adding three to everything? That hardly seems like it would be terribly confounding or difficult to reverse.
Summary – The Next Generation: Picard’s final adventure begins, and all his friends are along to wish him well.
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