“The sheer. Fucking. Hubris.”
“Maps and Legends” opens with a banger flashback sequence where the androids (here called “synths”) commit their act of… terrorism? Sabotage?… on Mars. If you’ve ever played Alien: Isolation, you’ll recognize the vibe: ghost-eyed indestructible beings with the strength of dozens of people apiece, snapping necks, blowing brains out with industrial tools, and doing it all with implacable mindlessness.
Now, any thinking or feeling fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation will immediately notice that something is seriously out of whack: part of the reason Picard rallied to defend Data in “The Measure of a Man” was to prevent this exact scenario, where android technology has been mass-produced by Starfleet to give the Federation a slave race. That’s what F8 and the other synths clearly are, in spite of (just one) of F8’s human colleagues shushing her friends when they’re overheard saying something rude about him. Legally, android personhood and consequent rights have been established; visibly, in this episode, they no longer count, and humans are even kinda being assholes about it. It’s distasteful, retrofitting the Federation into just another capitalist society that builds laws to serve its heavy lifting needs, rather than the needs of its people.
Speaking of heavy lifting, the episode returns to the present to send Picard and his former Tal Shiar housekeeper (!!), Laris, investigating the murder of Dahj. No one ever mentions “Dixon Hill.” The scene explains what heuristics are, which I appreciate, cuz I honestly thought TNG just made that word up. Per this series’ penchant for duplications and deferrals, Picard and Laris’ investigation establishes a ne plus ultra antecedent for the Tal Shiar called the Zhat Vash, a Romulan secret police so secret no one’s even sure if they’re real, but if they were real, they might have a beef with synthetic life that goes back “thousands and thousands of years.” That’s a lot. You can tell it’s a lot because it feels so inelegant, so inorganically (no pun intended) rangy and specific. If you’re thinking, I bet these guys are going to be behind the whole thing, you’re probably right. If you’re also betting that whatever they’re up to is more complicated than it needs to be, like so much of this series’ plotting, well, you’re two for two. Galloping through its own setup, by the end of this episode, the Zhat Vash will go from myth to a reality so real they have people in Starfleet and the Borg cube. They’re behind Dahj’s death, the cover up for Dahj’s death, and some other new thing that gets set up, elaborated, and complicated before the episode is over. For a series that runs in perpetual circles, Picard also goes through these motions head-spinningly fast.
But let’s zip over to the Borg cube! Which, as Soji tells Romulan Fuckboi, is actually called “The Artifact,” and is for my money the coolest workplace shown on Star Trek since the Promenade on DS9. A wrecked Borg cube that has been turned simultaneously into an archaeological dig, a refugee encampment, a research station and a lunatic asylum, the Artifact is such a great idea for how to incorporate the Borg into this season that I’ll forgive it just about anything. A sign on one of the Artifact’s walls proclaiming “This facility has gone 5843 days without an assimilation” qualifies as Star Trek: Picard’s first legitimately great joke.
Meanwhile: Soji fucks. With Romulan Fuckboi, of course. There’s something nicely oldschool Star Trek about this happening without fuss, in between episodes, given how dedicated Picard is elsewhere to teasing out character progressions for episode upon episode. Soji met Fuckboi, she fucked him, she doesn’t even know much about him but it was fun and she wouldn’t mind doing it again. That feels like TNG-era sexual maturity.
The bit of “Maps and Legends” that sticks out like a sore thumb is the inexplicable cameo by David Paymer, as Dr. Benayoun, the chief medical officer of the U.S.S. Stargazer, Picard’s first command. We’ve never seen or heard of this guy before. We haven’t seen or heard much about the Stargazer, ever, which feels like a missed opportunity; we know Jack Crusher (v1) died there, and we know Picard commanded it for an incredible 22 years, which makes one wonder at the relationships that would have been formed overall. This is the first time we’ve seen him talk to someone from that crew. It doesn’t illuminate much.
Dr. Benayoun rolls through Chateau Picard to deliver yet another of the season’s critical plot points: the fact that Picard is dying. Any abnormal behaviour from the prior episode is swept into the “Irumodic Syndrome” basket (though the syndrome is not named here), a basket which is going to become surprisingly pertinent throughout Picard, even after the syndrome in question is deleted from Picard in the first season’s finale. Pertinent here, though, is that Picard is on limited time, not cleared for Starfleet-approved space travel, which means (once again) he’s going to have to go rogue and burn out his final days on a reckless mission that no one else thinks is a good idea. A real asshole of a Starfleet admiral wants nothing to do with it, and underlines that the Romulan evacuation schism has rendered Picard not just persona non grata at Starfleet, but outright loathed. Like a lot of things about this show, it seems wildly hyperbolic, a problem for the sake of a problem. But sure: let’s go see Raffi in the desert.
This is the episode where Patrick Stewart (as Picard) gets to say out loud that he doesn’t really like science fiction, which is something Patrick Stewart (as himself) has been reliably spouting in interviews for over 30 years. This is also the one where I’m called upon to realize that Patrick Stewart (as Picard series creative) doesn’t really like the idea of Starfleet. His configuration of Picard since First Contact has been a maverick in the Kirk style, willing to obey the rules and principles of his organization up to, and only up to, the moment they no longer serve him. There’s a molecule of an idea here, about the hubris of a man like Picard having decided at some point that he knows better — and will act better — than Starfleet whenever he takes a notion to, and how it’s burned his relationship with an organization that was otherwise a foundational element of his identity. But like a lot of ideas, Picard skips past it, to churn more plot.
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.