Lovely, from one obscenely depressing and not very fun season of Picard to another – this time with Q and the Borg. I don’t have time to play about today, “Nepenthe” director Douglas Aarniokoski returns with writing credits going to Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas. Matthew Okumura acts as story editor throughout the season, and this time out we have Christopher B Derrick, Juliana James, and Kiley Rossetter as staff writers. At least for these first few episodes, the formula stays the same. I’m sure with such a packed production room there won’t be another messy and almost incoherent story throughout Picard again.

The trouble with Picard in these first two seasons is that usually one of the highest-ranking episodes is the first, often followed by maybe the sixth or seventh. The season of introspection, not just of the character of Jean-Luc but also the life of Patrick himself: He’s made it clear through interviews and possibly his own memoir (I’ve not read it) that he and his mother experienced domestic violence at the hands of his dad. Meanwhile, by way of one of Q’s little games, we’re plunged into the ancestry of the great Jean-Luc Picard, who for those that skipped ahead isn’t human anymore.

With a great big green tear right there in the middle of space, the heroes of Canton ride again. From two reinstated officers and admiral to a newly graduated cadet, and even an exonerated murderer (not OJ), the band is back together to solve the problem through means of poking the weird thing with a metaphorical stick. Well you would when it sends out a signal that is thousands of voices overlaid, basically chanting “Help us, Picard,” and requesting admission to the Federation. Or rather assimilation. Not exactly a cube, but there were enough hints in there to know what was coming through.

Skinny emo Doc Ock less so, but I’m never averse to some Alfred Molina now and then. Oh that’s right it wasn’t him, it was the Borg Queen requesting parlance with Jean-Luc aboard the retro-fitted Star Gazer, the NCC-82893 rather than the NCC-2893. I have to say, I don’t hate the redesign. In some ways, I think it is better from the outside. Where the original is cleaner, I think the busy nature of the 82893 works a little more. I still prefer the chunky saucer of the 2893 though. Not that it matters, 10 minutes on the thing and Picard is blowing it up.

2 minutes if we’re talking timing into the episode as it’s another one of those where we see the present, 80% is the past X-hours, and the final few moments are set up for episode two. Yes, another trope but this is less egregious than the first season’s scattering – for one “The Star Gazer” is entertaining and filled with character. My second point is probably something about a lounge singer in witness protection and given the identity of a nun. Points to you if you’re one of three other people who watch Star Trek and Emile Ardolino films.

Still sprinkled with nostalgia, “The Star Gazer” somewhat moves on from last season without forgetting it completely, leaving Soji to galavant with her newfound freedom due to the synth ban lifted. Meanwhile, after giving a Picard speech (another trope) to the Academy, and Annika getting attacked by pirates as she now commands the La Sirena, the two find themselves on the retro-fitted 82893. There is not much to the plot, it is quite simple and that’s probably why I enjoy it so much.

There is an anomaly in space, the crew are called back together, character backgrounds are playing into what is going on, the rift in space turns out to be the Borg, and Picard blows up the ship to save everyone. The season is done, everyone’s dead. Well, it would have been if mon capitaine didn’t wake up in another one of Q’s games, this time without Laris by his side at Château Picard. Instead, we’re back to playing with synths in an alt-reality where the titular man we’ve seen as sweet, dear, and lovable is in fact a Nazi.

The season is two years old at this point and the portrait has Jean-Luc out of the black and red of Starfleet and into a uniform of solid, evil black with an imperial grandiose to him. You don’t do “Oh, everyone is dead” and then have the lead wake up for it to be sweet nothing, the universe restored as was without as much as a tiny change. We’ve gone through this alt-timeline/universe nonsense enough in Star Trek to know where we’re heading eventually. Kira was intendant of Terok Nor and Sisko was the pirate Terran rebel; everyone’s evil in the mirror-verse.

Not only did “The Star Gazer” have pacing and character, with the help of Whoopi and in a broader sense a more straightforward plot, but there is a strong sense of direction at this point. As I have said before, it might not last, but there are things being set up in character that we’ll see in episodes to come. That’s not something I could say when reviewing season 1 of Picard because we know “Et in Arcadia Ego” wasn’t really in sight when “Remembrance” was written.

Zhaban, however, is the one piece of “The Star Gazer” I really didn’t like, with season 1 partly to blame. When we’re getting that toasting from Jean-Luc and Laris to the recently passed Zhaban I had to stop and think if he was one of the people shot, stabbed, spat on by the Zhat Vast, kicked off a ledge to become red mist at the bottom of a Borg Cube, and several other ways people were brutally murdered last season. No, he died in an “accident” of being in the way of a romance plot for Jean-Luc.

From a writing standpoint, I had little to no context of the time between seasons. For reference, at the time of writing, I’ve not long finished season 1. As a viewer, it was quick and dirty exposition to get him out of the way but still could have been done better given how much murder and death clouded the first season of Picard. Yes, we’ve seen that JL is back to his wine-making ventures, Starfleet has lifted the synth ban, and all this other nonsense, but for me it could have been as much as 10 days or six years between seasons for all I knew.

A hint of something to place this advancement in the timeline before shouting “Zhaban is dead, Picard wants some of that sweet-sweet Romulan a–” Yeah, that would have been nice to have. Not a note that he’s been gone a year and a bit already, I still don’t know where in the timeline that was supposed to be in reference to season 1. Nor do I care, quite frankly. We’re no longer in the 23rd/24th century, we’re heading to the hollowed year of… 2024. Oh, it is the future!

I like “The Star Gazer” as an episode, and if I’m quite honest, it is the most ‘original’ and interesting the series has been. There is still that smattering of what we once had returned for one last outing, though there is enough to keep me interested as a viewer this time around to think maybe we don’t have a three-episode pilot next. The only downer on this is that I know what comes next. Much like the season prior, it is once again haunted by dystopian nightmares of our future; the very thing Star Trek is the opposition to.

Ultimately “The Star Gazer” brilliantly sets up an intriguing plot going forward full of not only character but laced with that drug, nostalgia, that everyone is hooked on. It is delightful to see these characters (minus Pill’s Jurati – she’s still bland) have a sense of purpose and reasoning in this world. Ok yeah, Jean-Luc does commit hari-kari to stop a new threatening Borg that tore a rift in space, and we’re in a Q-based dystopian nightmare in the episodes to come, but as a standalone piece of Star Trek, this was really bloody good.

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Star Trek: Picard "The Star Gazer"

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• A simple and entertaining plot full of character.
• Whoopi!
• It seems that there is a sense of purpose for the characters.

Cons

• Zhaban's death comes out of left field.
• I still don't have a sense of purpose for Agness.
• Great another Nazi dystopian future is on the horizon.