Contains Spoilers
Star Trek: Picard continues to strengthen in an episode that takes time to breathe and reconnect, inviting some old friends to join along the way. After a couple of episodes that have seen Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew make haste to save Soji (Isa Briones) from the grips of the Romulan Tal Shiar, this episode takes a moment to reflect, even if there is still danger on the fringes.
Having escaped from the Borg Cube, Picard and Soji seek refuge with old friends whilst they await Rios (Santiago Cabrera), Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill) to pick them up and journey onward to Soji’s suspected home planet. Those old friends just so happen to be William Riker (Johnathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), who have been living a quiet, peaceful existence on the planet Nepenthe with their young daughter, Kestra (Lulu Wilson).
Picard, despite the fact that it has featured characters from the franchise past before this point, has not really been a show that has delved that much into nostalgia. This is the first episode that really gives into it, but it is thankfully in service of an episode that has a great deal of heart to it. Seeing Riker and Deanna back feels more profoundly moving than you might expect it to be, particularly when you see how much grace remains in Sirtis’s performance, and how much of a charming glint remains in Frakes eyes and smile.
What affects us more is in seeing how they have developed together as a family. They are seemingly living an idyllic existence on a beautiful planet, with a gorgeous house deep in a forest residing by a lake. But what took them there and what made it their home is a much sadder truth. Taking their ill son there in the hope of him finding some joy in the last moments of a battle with an illness that could have been cured if it weren’t for the Synth ban, the Riker-Troi family are in grieving but doing their best to live as grounded a life as possible. It is simply wonderful to see them back and used in a manner which adds weight to the story, with the moments that see them interact with their old friend Picard bringing out the best, and most recognisably Picardian elements, in this iteration of Jean-Luc that we have seen so far.
There is also a very sweet relationship that develops between Soji and Riker and Tori’s teenage daughter, Kestra. With Soji on the defensive, not knowing who she can really trust, it is Kestra’s youthful curiosity that allows Soji to feel at ease and confident in the fact that she is in the company of friends. Kestra and Soji are both still grieving over the loss of a sibling, and for whatever brief moment, they find a connection together that approaches something close to the relationship that they have both lost. It’s a dynamic that’s played well, and arguably could have had more focus in the episode as a whole.
Elsewhere, the subplots off of Nepenthe are a bit so-so. The growing desperation of Dr. Jurati’s guilt feels the most compelling, thanks largely to Alison Pill’s strong performance, but the plot with Elnor trapped on the Borg Cube feels less exciting, and once again creates more of a notion that the show doesn’t quite know what to do with the character most of the time. It is in these subplots that the episode still has a frantic energy that has both come to characterise the show and slightly hinder it. It is nice to take a breath with some old friends, but the end of the episode does seem like we’ll be diving right back into heavy conspiracies and Romulan pursuits, elements which aren’t quite as compelling as the show wants them to be.
Personally, this stands as the best episode of the show so far, which is a compliment considering that the last few episodes have been increasingly strong. It is a surprise just how much seeing Picard, Riker and Troi together again stirs your emotions, with the full weight of the character’s histories together being put to great effect. One has to wonder if we’ll end up hoping the show had been more about these relationships than the new ones established along the way, but I’ll certainly hold judgement on that until we meet the journey’s end.
Star Trek: Picard is now streaming
