Contains Spoilers
The weaknesses of Star Trek: Picard comes to bear, in the clumsy first part of the two-part season one finale.
Star Trek: Picard has certainly had its moments and a number of very strong elements along the way, despite a spluttering start. The stage was a little rocky going into the start of the season finale, but there was undoubtedly promise too. Sadly, that promise gets a little lost along the way in ‘Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1’, an episode lacking the smarts to truly excite, and sometimes coming across a little lazy in the process.
The episode starts off promising enough, with what is possibly the strongest action sequence of the series so far, and one that ends in bombastic fashion. Arriving at Soji’s (Isa Briones) home planet populated by advanced synthetics, Picard and his crew crash land pursued by Narek (Harry Treadaway) and accompanied by the sudden arrival of the abandoned Borg Cube, with Elnor (Evan Evagora) and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) still on board, with all their spacecraft being engulfed by trippy giant orchids. So far, so pleasingly weird.
Once on the surface of the planet, we are met with Soji’s home and the rest of her siblings. The design of the planet, run by seemingly the most advanced race of synthetics ever seen in the show, is disappointingly bland. It’s the kind of cleanly designed world we’ve seen countless times in the show’s past, with very little attention given to the tech of this advanced world, and all the androids have a gold pigmentation applied that looks distractingly cheap at points. It’s a disappointing design element of an episode that ends up making a few confusing and questionable leaps of logic along the way.
Most of that comes in the form of Sutra. Also played by Isa Briones, Sutra shares Soji’s face and is seemingly the leader of the synthetics on this planet. When Sutra Vulcan mind melds (because apparently that’s a thing you can learn?) with Dr. Jacobi (Alison Pill) in order to find out about the prophecy of destruction told to Jacobi by Commodore Oh, she discovers that the Romulans have misinterpreted the ancient message that has been left behind. Rather than being a prophecy of doom, it is in fact a rally cry from a society of extremely advanced synthetic lifeforms that exist in secret, ready to assist any new synthetic lifeforms by wiping out the organic life that threatens them This revelation turns Sutra into a chilly, calculating antagonist who, rather than run from the incoming Romulan attack, demands her people answer the call of this advanced society and destroy all organic life that threatens them, including the Federation.
Twisting this prophecy once again in the final legs of this season feels more convoluted than it needs to be, and the characterisation of Sutra, who should seemingly be of more advanced thinking, feels rash and rushed and not entirely convincing. It sits at odds with what we know of the character of Data from the series’ past, as seeing these actions and decisions made by his descendants feels at odds with our memory of Data, with Stra’s callous actions being far too willingly accepted by her race, with Soji also coming on to her side.
Speaking of Data, the writers also find a new means for Brent Spiner to be involved with the series by casting him as Dr. Alton Inigo Soong, the son of Data’s creator. The logic of his casting just about holds water, and his character offers up some interesting avenues for where part two could go, with his character trying to develop the means of transferring consciousness. Having Spiner back in this role though does feel a little forced, but it will remain to be seen just what an impact the character may make
Dr. Soong’s interest in trying to prolong life after death dovetails with Picard’s dealings with his own mortality, as he comes clean with his crew that he is terminally ill. The effects of his illness may be coming to bear on the once rock-solid Captain, as he finds that many of the tricks in his playbook can’t convince Sutra of a less violent course of action. There are shades throughout this episode of Picard’s quiet gravitas, thanks to Stewart’s strong performance, but again some of the writing when it comes to Picard feels a little off-key with our perception of him. That is undoubtedly part of the point, with the illness calling into question how capable Picard is to take on this mission, but the writing doesn’t quite feel sharp enough to land this point.
The first part of this finale once again leaves you aching for the show to do better. Much of the writing is too conveniently plotted, and frankly a little dumb, as the show builds to a climax that admittedly has a lot of grand stakes, with a clash set to take place with billions of lives on the line. But unfortunately, the show drops the ball when it comes to deepening our connection to these characters that we have gotten to know over the course of this series, with a Picard that feels more lost than when he started out.
Star Trek: Picard is now streaming.
