Star Trek: Picard 2.07

[selenak]

I'm with the APs for Easter, which means very little online time. In briefness, the review:



I liked the episode, though for the first half it felt a bit like it was stalling, but then what followed recontextualized everything, and narrative progress became clear. Firstly, I hadn't seen James Callis again on my tv since BSG ended, so I was delighted this series' PTB made him a guest star. Also, him in an Starfleet uniform didn't do anything to deny the rumors that he and Siddig el Fadil/Alexander Siddig were brothers separated at birth. :) Secondly, here's why I early on thought the series was still stalling, and why I changed my mind: all the "you're stuck, you keep people at arms' length and also, something really upsetting happened with/to your mother" had been established before. Also, I was afraid maia was right that the series would transfer Patrick Stewart's personal history - his father's domestic violence towards his mother - to Jean-Luc Picard, which wouldn't really fit what bits and pieces we've seen and heard of Picard Senior in a few TNG episodes or indeed the brief glimpse at his mother in s1. HOWEVER. Instead we got (with the slight question mark of "that isn't the whole truth" said by a character) the reveal that a) his mother was mentally ill (which btw also adds another dimension to Jean-Luc's remarks about depression to Tallin and his "you remind me of my mother" to Renee, though his mother sounds more manic-depressive?), and b) the point isn't so much "what's Picard's backstory trauma" but "why is it so important to Q he confront it and what the hell is wrong with Q right now?". Picard figuring this out and going back to younger Guinan then resulted not only in new El-Aurian lore (btw, I recognized that one gesture from Q Who, when Q first encounters Guinan on the Enterprise!) , but the summoning not resulting in "our" Q showing up (but the FBI instead, or is it?) makes me wonder. Q might not have all of his powers (see the tag scene of two eps ago with Renee), but he clearly has some of them (otherwise he couldn't have produced Kore's temporary cure, not to mention the transport of Picard & Co. from what seemed to be certain death to the alternate timeline), so it can't just be a case of being cut off from the Continuum in punishment a la Deja Q. My blackmail theory could still work, but if according to Guinan this summoning is irresistable to any Q within the vicinity, and he could resist it (unless the FBI guy is him in disguise), there might be something existentially altered/threatened at play, too.

(Also: hooray for younger Guinan being back! It would have been a shame if we only gotten one episode of her.)

One more observation: letting Callis first show up in Picard's mind as Picard's inner therapist who is then revealed to be his father revealing a hidden/repressed truth and being told by Picard "maybe I never knew you" is also interesting because of course Jean-Luc has just seen Q posing as Renee's therapist.

Tallin being Romulan after all: somewhow I don't think her being an ancestor of Laris is the answer. Why would a Romulan of the 21st century be recruited by Gary Seven's people for a surveillance gig on Earth anyway? More likely she's a shapeshifter like Gary Seven's cat Isis. Then again, her mental self in Picard's mind remained consistent.

Meanwhile in the outside world: Seven figures out that a) Agnes Jurati hasn't purged this version of La Sirena from Borg tech, she put more into it, and b) the Queen's about to assimilate Agnes in totem and once she's donen that, can get to the usual Borg routine of assimilating the planet. (This answers my question as to why the Queen hasn't already started assimilating other people and made them into Borg drones and actually fits with Picard's earlier statement that the original assimilation takes longer, whereas reassimilation (which would be the case with him) would happen in seconds.) Before things get serious, the mutual teasing when Raffi complains about the prospect of a renewed Jurati/Rios affair was great. Rios, of course, is busy flirting with the doctor and literally reciting Kirk's lines from "The Voyage Home" about not being from outer space, just working there. (Complete with "I'm from Iowa/Chile".) Given we already remet the punk from ST IV, someone in the script department clearly has a favourite TOS movie. If it's not just a gag, I wonder whether the doctor (and her son) might end up following Gillian's footsteps and go with Rios into the future (maybe on the run from the local authorities) after all?

Lastly: I liked the season so far, but I do hope we'll get actual interaction between Picard and Q in the remaining episodes, but because otherwise it would be a criminal waste of actorly chemistry.

Comments

[bimo]

I hadn't seen James Callis again on my tv since BSG ended, so I was delighted this series' PTB made him a guest star.


I reckon James Callis probably got involved via Terry Matalas, because a couple of years ago Callis played a crucial guest role throughout one entire season of Matalas' own show Twelve Monkeys (which is actually rather worth watching for its smart take on time travel, continuity porn and wonderful cast and characters)

Also, word on Callas and Siddig el Fadil being separated at birth. I thought exactly the same the second I saw Callis in that Starfleet uniform ;-)

[selenak]

Given that Ron Moore found the occasion to use some other DS9 folk on BSG, I suspect the reason why I didn't cast Siddig was that everyone would have assumed him to be Head!Baltar or Baltar to be a Cylon with various incarnations after all...

[kore]

He was amazing in 12 Monkeys! I love that show.

[lightofdaye]

I spend most of the miniseries and some of season 1 wondering if Balter was played by Siddig. In my defense I am not smart.

Callis' uniform was odd. Not an exact replica of a tng movie/last ds9 uniform but close. I wonder if that was an intentional variation or not.

Raffi and Seven's talk about their relationship was fun in an oddly meta sort of way.

[selenak]

Callis' uniform was odd. Not an exact replica of a tng movie/last ds9 uniform but close. I wonder if that was an intentional variation or not.

Well, they used correct TNG style uniforms for Data and Picard in Picard's dream of Data painting in the first season, so it may very well have been intentional to signal this wasn't a memory/an actual therapist but Picard's mind mixing up various elements.

[maia]

I was afraid maia was right that the series would transfer Patrick Stewart's personal history - his father's domestic violence towards his mother - to Jean-Luc Picard

I'm very relieved that it now seems like that's not going to happen! But I'm not thrilled about his mother having been mentally ill...because it's always the mother who is/was mentally ill...

[lizbee]

Yeah, and "my parent's mental illness was deeply traumatic for me" and "manic pixie dream mum who doesn't get treated for her mental illness because then she'd lose her creativity" are such common and toxic tropes. That and all the talking around her condition, and not naming it, really reinforced the stigma.

(My podcasting buddy and I were so mad, we did a very special 15 minute rant episode, and have heard from a LOT of Trekkies with mental illnesses who were upset by this -- and also DV survivors who resent the bait and switch.)

[kore]

....yeah, I was not thrilled by either of those things.

[wembley]

Love your recaps and analysis as always!

(otherwise he couldn't have produced Kore's temporary cure,

I think you are probably right buuuut in "Deja Q" (oh my God I'm such a nerd), Q talks about having all his omnipotent knowledge still stored in his now-human-and-powerless-brain aka a Q without all of his powers can still technically be a "genius" (an unrealistic tv-style genius anyway) so that could also work as a handwave as to how he produced a cure so quickly even if his powers are on the fritz.

[selenak]

Granted, that is possible, but presumably the way he became Renee Picard's therapist needed some supernatural power. Since he only can have done it after noting that fingersnapping doesn't work in her case, so if he can still do that, I'd guess he went back in time a little to become her therapist. (She hardly would have picked a new one a few days before the Europa mission.)

Maybe I'm overthinking it, though!

[wembley]

I know this is probably not what you mean, but now I want Q going back in time to get his masters in social work simply for this "mission" and he hates every minute of it.

[selenak]

LOL. Now that would be a worthy sequel to "Deja Q"!

[fresne]

Re: the young Guinan (Ito Aghayere), there's an excellent interview with her in Will Wheaton's Ready Room where she talks about being a Trek fan and specifically what it meant to step into the role. The reason she make the "Q Who" gesture in the episode is the actress asked if there could be a way to include it.