Can we move on please, I’m getting bored of the setup! This episode is directed once again by Hanelle M Culpepper and written by Michael Chabon. This time Chabon is joined by James Duff, with Nick Zayas story editing. Duff is probably best known for creating the 2005 police procedural (shocker) The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick and J.K. Simmons, as well as its spin-off show, Major Crimes, starring Mary McDonnell and G. W. Bailey (Rizzo from M*A*S*H*). Zayas is mostly known for being an assistant, and later a story editor/writer for Major Crimes.

With yet another pre-credits scene set before the TV interview, Picard is getting on my nerves as it shovels more into the foundations of the series than building the metaphorical house/plot. This time focusing on Michelle Hurd’s Raffi, we get a look at the former officer both during her time at Starfleet and the “troubled” aftermath of following “JL” into one of his many crusades. Great character work, we see she’s had struggles with drugs and gambling, we see she’s got trust issues with the man that cost her Starfleet. However, we’ve already had two episodes of plotting.

There is a touch more done with the Borg Cube, as Soji has knowledge she didn’t know she had. Tick another tired trope off the bucket list, because making something feel fresh or interesting isn’t key here. I want to keep summarizing before I get into moaning about the episode and ultimately conclude that it was enjoyable, just with heavy asterisks. These first three episodes have done all the work of a pilot, quite literally finding us a pilot to go on an adventure with, and has taken two hours to get us there. Implied incest with Evil Spock and all.

I feel I’ve said it a hundred times already, and I’m sure I’ll say it a hundred more, but “The End is the Beginning” isn’t a bad episode and the writing isn’t terrible. That said, I also think after two episodes already, I want to go places. I want to see the dark expanse of space, and I want to… go somewhere that isn’t on Earth or this dull Borg Cube. I know I’ve just said something goes on, but Soji being able to see why humanoids seek mythology/religion as a way to connect and understand others isn’t visually or emotionally interesting.

This brings me to Culpepper’s final directorial duty for Picard, an ok work but once again we’ve got action to contend with. I believe I’ve mentioned some of her other work before, particularly with 2017’s reboot of S.W.A.T.; in fact, she’s just directed last Friday’s episode “Escape,” a show dependent on its action. Admittedly, it isn’t just her fault, I’d credit a good portion to Chabon and Duff as the Zhat Vash attack is messy, to say the least. Something once again made worse by needing to hide stunt doubles in quick cuts, making the ability to understand what’s going on difficult.

However, this wasn’t the only late-in-the-episode problem I had, as Narek and his sister (also called Rizzo) were nearly getting it on from a Dutch angle. Hold on, I’m seeing red and that awful 2017 redesign of the Klingons again. Right, I’ve had a good deep breath, but can we limit our Dutch angles please? I don’t want to feel like I’m in that bit just before the spin-cycle on a front-loading washing machine. I had enough of it from David Semel and Adam Kane, I don’t need that and family-smelling sex on each other.

The majority of what I’ve said thus far is technical, the mechanical portions of the show that you aren’t supposed to notice if done well. Let’s talk about our new cast member, someone who becomes the heart of the show later on in season 2, Santiago Cabrera’s Cristóbal Rois. Someone who is basically set up as one thing and is completely different than what they are portrayed as. So let’s get this straight, Jean-Luc gets on the La Sirena and meets a guy with an accent that guides him to the captain who looks exactly like the guy Jean-Luc just met.

The captain (Rois) is sitting with shrapnel in his shoulder, totally not bothered because he’s a big gruff man, especially as the EMH that looks like him pulls this metal out of him. Then he reads the Spanish philosophy book The Tragic Sense of Life, by Miguel de Unamuno. That wasn’t his only emergency hologram either, as minutes later he’s putting on an over-the-top fake Irish accent, an obvious nod to the greatest human who ever lived. Now let’s work logically: He’s reading a book on what it is to be alive and he’s surrounded by copies of himself in hologram form, clearly he’s human.

The setup here points all the fingers at Rois being synthetic or some form of artificial life, which (spoiler) never pays off because he’s just human. Why do we have this in particular for him, when he’s in a story about artificial life and the importance of that life being maintained? Connect the dots or don’t put the picture in the connect the dots book, how hard is it for writers to understand this? It should have been in Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat, maybe then we wouldn’t have mini-Chris Chibnalls running around thinking “Et in Arcadia Ego” was smart.

Though speaking of books, I’ve got a bone to pick with Star Trek and a lot of modern sci-fi. What is the purpose of all these touch-screen, holo-computer things that you can see right through and make the whole UI of the things god-awful to look at? Remember LCARS, I remember LCARS, at least you could see and read what is written there on the screen instead of a blurry bit of text that is mirrored. Maybe I’m just looking at it as a nightmare for dyslexics to read, which it is, but it’s also not great in terms of a viewing experience.

I’ll admit, I think the reason I’m nit-picking and poking holes in “The End is the Beginning” is because we’ve only just begun. With all three episodes smooshed together, I’ve watched about 2 hours of setup to a show that’s a sequel and a continuation of a show that’s 20+ years old. It feels like someone saw the word pacing in the dictionary and said, “Well, it must be opposites day.” January 25th for the record. My point is that I’ve sat through this third episode a couple of times now trying to pry something worth saying out of myself, and it has been a fruitless endeavor.

What I keep coming back to time and time again with “The End is the Beginning” is the fact that I found myself saying: This should have been in episode one, that should have been in two, if we got this nostalgia bit you could shove that in episode one and we’d be on the adventure already. We know why, as I’ve stated before, the series was already fully in production before the finale was written. At this point we’re effectively throwing darts in the dark, hoping to hit the light switch and get us moving.

I’ll go into more angry detail when we’re in the finale on the 2nd of May. However, my point now is that we’ve had so much groundwork laid because we’ve been in this holding pattern. To further back up my point, the production codes (oh yes, real nerddom here) were 101, 102A, and 102B; which translates into season 1, episode 1, and season 1 episode 2 part 1, and part 2. An odd decision considering the actual two-parter is 108 and 109, but the point stands, even production viewed these three as one little thing even beyond logistics.

To me, it feels like mismanagement of production. Filming began in April 2019, writing wasn’t complete until late July, and by September, filming had wrapped. There may have been a vague idea of the finale in sight, but common sense says to have your work done before getting it down on film, in this case. You wouldn’t tell a teacher that you’ll write the conclusion/summation to your 30,000-word thesis while they read the body, which you handed in on the deadline. It is a slightly messy metaphor, but one that works.

“Stop ranting!” Ok, I’ll try: As a showrunner, Chabon just tried to fill the production quota and called it a day, or Nick Zayas really shouldn’t be editing TV. Once again, “The End is the Beginning” written by Chabon and James Duff isn’t poorly written nor a bad episode itself, but after watching the same setup in three episodes, I’m bored and want to go on adventures. There is something to be said for Borg Cube, the Romulan conspiracy, the nostalgia of Jean-Luc in space again, and the potential the series has on its side. Though again, I’m a sitting of Nemesis deep and I’m not excited about what I’ve seen.

Ultimately, “The End is the Beginning” is a beginning of how we mean to go on: A slow laborious march to the grave before nonsense ensues. Aside from the action scenes and that Dutch angle, Culpepper does fine in getting out of the way and giving us serviceable shots. Sadly, it is difficult to say anything when she’s done very little to get you excited. I do like the sequence of Jean-Luc looking at the captain’s chair before sitting elsewhere, but that’s probably it. The highlight of the whole episode is probably the emotional punches of Michelle Hurd’s Raffi in the second act.

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Star Trek: Picard "The End is the Beginning"

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Michelle Hurd brings a lot in that second act.
• There was so much potential with Rois.

Cons

• Glaciers move faster than this plot.
• The dutch (angle).