This entry was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, this television series wouldn’t exist. To learn more, visit the WGA strike hub and the SAG-AFTRA strike site.
“The century leading up to first contact was rife with chaos.”
Ok, I fully forgot Isa Briones does actually return in season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, playing a scion of the tortured Soong dynasty who, even after watching “Fly Me To The Moon,” I’d be hard-pressed to describe. I’d thought Briones was one-and-done after “The Star Gazer,” so I guess this season plays slightly more fair with the actress than I’d recalled; but of course, Kore Soong is a substantially less interesting character/plotline than Soji, so, this isn’t exactly a redemption. I’d rather have Soji back, and given something to do. But I guess as far as Ms. Briones’ residuals go, this is better than nothing.
Guess who else gets trotted back into the fold in “Fly Me To The Moon”? Orla Brady, as (not) Laris! Here named Tallinn (and, per my memory issues, I really have no idea if Tallinn and Laris turn out to be the same person at the end of all this), she’s doing the same job on earth as Gary Seven in “Assignment: Earth,” an episode which was intended as a backdoor pilot for a spinoff for Star Trek that would have focused on Robert Lansing’s secret agent man. I don’t mind Terry Matalas’ attempt, across Picard season two, to tie up the question marks of Gary Seven, Guinan, and the Traveller, by folding these unique extraterrestrial weirdos into the same overarching package. I do, of course, mind the execution. And generally speaking, I like Laris a lot — Romulan Tal Shiar housekeeper slash love interest is entirely my bag — but I’m slightly unclear on why we needed an alternate version of her here, rather than the original article, who has an existing relationship with Picard, whose show this (theoretically) is. Same as Soji/Kare. It’s a mistake Picard seems to make over and over, going all the way back to Dahj: establishing characters who have ties to our ostensible lead, and then rather than developing them, shuffling them away and sending in a clone.
Meanwhile, Guinan! I was so busy stumping for union rights last week that I failed to mention the arrival of Young Guinan (Ito Aghayare), who — in addition to making one wonder why Guinan looked like Whoopi Goldberg in “Time’s Arrow” but like Aghayare in “Watcher” — introduces one of the most confounding time travel timelines I’ve ever encountered. I spent a solid month wondering why Young Guinan would not have recognized Picard (having met him in the 1800s in the aforementioned “Time’s Arrow”), before I realized that the rules of causality would have meant that, with the timeline having been altered, Fascist Picard from this timeline’s future 24th Century would never have travelled back to the 19th Century at all, thereby negating Guinan ever having met Picard in the first place, even though that meeting took place 200 years before this episode. I’m usually pretty deft with temporal mechanics, but, yowza: that one’s a roller-coaster!
And whilst cataloguing the many Star Trek characters who are “back” by the time “Fly Me To The Moon” has unspooled, let’s not omit the big one: Brent Spiner is here, playing yet another Soong ancestor who looks exactly like Brent Spiner.
It’s… cruel. Spiner, as Data, is given a relatively decent goodbye at the end of Picard season one, solving for Data’s ignominous death in Star Trek: Nemesis, if not perfectly, then at least gamely. But because legacy sequels can do no less than suck at the teats of their lowest common denominators, Spiner is back again (to please the fans?), which means that Data is on the table again, which means that closure means nothing and these stories are purposeless. And — yet again — we’re not even dealing with Data here (or even Noonien Soong, the one we know and like). It’s yet another Goldberg Variation, interacting exclusively with a different Goldberg Variation (Kore), in service of… uh, who knows. Genetic engineering or something. Khan?
Ok. At this point, Picard season two has pretty much flamed out. These episodes are awful, and the season plotline, for any of its potential merits, has completely caved in. I no longer had, or have, any idea what I’m meant to care about at this point in the story; and every single decision the writers make either confuses me or pisses me off. It’s from here that I can safely say that Picard season two is one of, if not the, worst seasons of Star Trek ever made. It’s honestly not even worth picking over: there’s nothing here to describe or discuss. It’s a creative black hole, made poorly by people who evidently couldn’t even be bothered to read back their own work, let alone revise it. Having (Young) Guinan lead Picard to Laris/Tallinn is a great example: if this season needs a “watcher,” why do we need both characters? Guinan means more to the audience, and (even played by a different actress) could fulfill all the narrative duties Laris/Tallinn is now required to fulfill. It’s as though none of these scripts were ever revised, after their first drafts. A writer understands, upon revision, that condensing story, character, and plot into the simplest possible expression is the way to turn a wooly draft into a compelling final product. But, there’s none of that sharpness or clarity of intent here. In season two of Picard, there’s two of everything: two of every idea, two of every plot point; two of every mistake. It scarcely passes muster as professional work.
Blogging the Next Generation: Picard runs Thursdays on tederick.com as I work my way through every episode of Star Trek: Picard. The original BTNG did the same for Star Trek: The Next Generation.