*Contains Spoilers*
Amazon
A mystery involving the Romulans and Starfleet deepens in the second episode of Amazon Prime’s ‘Star Trek: Picard’.
After the events of last week’s first episode, I was quick to assume that the show was racing towards getting Jean-Luc Picard back onto the bridge of a spaceship. But, as is evident in the second episode, we’ve got a lot of plot to lay down first, with this episode committing more time to the mystery that bubbles at the centre of this series, as well as the obstacles Picard has in his way before he can shoot off to the stars once more.
Picking up with the events of last week that saw Dahj’s (Isa Briones) demise but the revelation that this ‘daughter of Data’ has a twin sister somewhere out in the galaxy, Picard is keen to get out there and search for this twin and to protect her from the very forces that killed her sister. Little does Picard know but that sister, Soji, is at great risk, working on a Romulan reclamation site located inside an abandoned Borg cube whilst being watched by the very same clandestine faction of synthetic hating Romulans who murdered her sister.
Much of what happens in this, again, overly busy episode feels more like elements of plot being put into place, with characters and cover-ups that go all the way to the top being formed in order to establish the threat amongst its threads. It can often just feel like a lot of ‘scenes’ just happening, delivering information that will be pertinent later on, being much more mystery driven than it is by character, which can feel a little frustrating at times. That said though, we do get some decent beats that flesh out this era of the ‘Star Trek’ universe. The eerie and startling opening shows us the attack on Mars that resulted in Starfleet outlawing the use of synthetics. It’s a strong opening to an episode that struggles to match up to the level of intrigue laid down in its cold opening.
Elsewhere, certain elements feel a little at odds with each other. Seeing a Starfleet that doesn’t have its house in order isn’t anything particularly new for ‘Trek’ but there’s something that just feels a little off at seeing a Starfleet Admiral use an F-bomb in the presence of Jean-Luc Picard. It’s a hangover of one of the worse elements of Star Trek: Discovery, a desire to add more attitude and grit to a franchise where you feel it doesn’t necessarily need it, particularly when it’s only used for the sake of a little shock factor.
As Picard dives deeper into the mystery and finds barriers put before him by a Federation he once took pride in upholding the principles of, you begin to get more of a sense of how this show is using the character of Picard. The world around him may have changed, but he remains a principled individual, willing to do what is right even if his orders go against that. While he still might not be in space for the sake of laying down more plot involving hidden advanced androids and prejudice Romulan fanatics, Stewart is still a commanding presence and clearly relishes playing a Picard who has been given a new purpose in his twilight years, particularly as he comes face to face with the fact that his days may be numbered (although, one wonders if this is an aspect that really needed stressing). The supporting cast is growing in strength as well, with fine turns from Alison Pill as Dr. Jurati, the scientist with a keen interest in aiding Picard to locate the unique Soji, and Harry Treadaway making an impression as Narek, a Romulan spy keeping close tabs on Soji.
There is a sense now that Picard may not be as in a hurry to get into space as initially thought, but it is still not entirely that bothered about being a character-focused piece either. With a sense that we’re building up to forming a new crew and setting out on a new mission, one has to hope that Picard himself doesn’t get lost in the central mystery as this series develops, as these last two episodes occasionally threaten. As it stands, ‘Maps and Legends’ has some interesting pieces within it, but there’s no escaping the sense that this is largely a collection of plot dictated scenes that only occasionally intrigues.
