It’s like a warm, comfy blanket you wrap around yourself. It’s time for the premiere of Star Trek: Picard season three, episode one, “The Next Generation,” and here we are again.
I’m so excited, and I can’t wait to go on this journey with you and watch this season of Picard. By all standards of measurement this is going to be an exciting season, whichever way you sit on whether the previous seasons stood up or not. At the end of the day I’m super thrilled to be revisiting old family and friends, as I’m sure you are too.
One thing before the episode even starts. As soon as you get to the opening intro, you’re going to notice it looks like it’s the Titan that’s now the ship in the little rainbow colored Star Trek opening logo.
Beverly, a Phaser Rifle, and a Message
The episode starts with a really long shot of a gorgeous nebula. You hear this really old-timey music, and then you see a ship. In Star Trek speak, it’s got blue and red nacelles, so you know it must be Starfleet, or at least connected with the good guys, if you will. Then out of the sides come swooping in these very scary looking alien craft, and they start shooting. You get the sense someone’s running from something.
And then you get to see her. The first person we see is Beverly. That’s right. It’s so dope. She’s running around, she’s got herself a phaser rifle, she’s taking out fools, and she finally gets to where she’s going. What does she do? She sends a long range secure message to someone very important. She sends it to Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, using a very specific codec. It’s funny, because I guess it hearkens back to an old Star Trek episode.
Then we crash to our very first look at the title sequence, at least the way they’re doing it here, I believe, and it says “Part One: The Next Generation.”
The Combadge in the Office
You get this really awesome pan over the painting, and a really cool opening moment with Laris and Picard. They’re cleaning things out, this and that, and she basically reassures him.
That evening, I guess, he’s in his office doing things, and then there’s a sound. That’s right, that sound. It’s a combadge. He has the computer find it, he tracks it down, and when he finds it, it’s his old Enterprise-D combadge, just chirping away. He asks the computer to decrypt the security priority message, and it’s Beverly. She’s on screen, she’s looking at him, and she says those words we saw in the trailer. I need you. The coordinates are embedded. And trust no one, especially Starfleet. Not Starfleet, nobody.
Picard and Laris discuss it, and Laris is like, “Listen, this is your friend. I’m not worried. Go.” By my understanding, from some spoiler stuff I’ve read, I believe this is the last time we’re going to see her, at least immediately. So they’ve kind of written this character out for now, which is a little awkward.
They Did Try, Off Screen
You do get one really interesting nugget of information during that entire encounter. He and Beverly did try.
So Star Trek fans get the answer to a long sought-after question, which is what happened, and did they try or didn’t they. You find out they did try, somewhat badly, and it was awkward and uncomfortable and the whole nine yards. That’s fine.
My problem with that kind of storytelling has always been this. How can you have characters who so clearly have chemistry tell you, “Oh yeah, I know, we didn’t work, off screen, sorry about that”? It feels like the cheapest route. I’ve always hated that type of storytelling. Do better.
The New Captain of the Titan
Then we get this really cool scene. It’s a club, basically, and you get to see Riker meeting Picard. Picard tells him the whole thing and says, “Listen, I don’t know what to do.” And Riker’s like, “All right, well, I have an idea.” Their idea is to go to the Titan and try to, I don’t know, abscond with it. They’re not going to steal a ship, obviously. But the first officer is, of course, Commander Annika Hansen, also going by Seven.
So immediately, the new captain of the Titan is a prick all day. The guy is a jerk, completely. I’m sitting here like, why are you such a tool, bro? He doesn’t greet them. He doesn’t see them whatsoever. He’s not on the bridge when they get underway. And he starts dinner without them. They’re like, “Are we late?” And he goes, “No, your reputations preceded you early enough that I felt inclined to start.” And I’m like, whoa, dude.
So right off the bat I’m not a fan of this guy. Then Picard and Riker lay out what they’re looking for, and he’s so irreverent in this moment it almost stupefied me. I’m watching and I’m clutching pearls for them. Do you have any idea who you’re talking to? This is Picard. And dude doesn’t even miss a beat. He’s like, “Retired. Congratulations, by the way.”
They picked an amazing actor to play this guy, because this guy loves to play these really dickish, bullyish characters. He does a great job. It’s a really, really fantastic job when it comes to the whole thing.
Raffi and Her Handler
There’s a brief interlude where you get to see Raffi, and you sort of find out she’s on some sort of Starfleet Intelligence mission. She’s using her known status as a junkie, former, recovering, but it’s taking its toll. And she’s very honest about it. At one point she’s talking to her digital handler, and she’s like, “Look, I can’t keep up. This is a very difficult process.” And he’s like, “I know,” and starts flashing up her entire Starfleet record, the discharge, this and that, problem with this, that and the other.
So you get the sense that they’re really manipulating her for some really crappy reasons.
Three Minutes at the Ryton System
Picard and Riker are bunking together. The captain’s like, sorry, couldn’t accommodate better quarters, I apologize. My thing is, I thought every ship had diplomatic quarters of some sort, already prepared. And the thing is, they know this. You’re just being a jerk, bro.
Seven wakes them up and they come up to the bridge. They’re at the Ryton system, the place they wanted to go. And she’s like, in about three minutes exactly, the officer over the shuttle bay is going to be called away, so hurry up. They’re heading down to where they’ve got to go, and sure enough, the captain comes up and he’s like, “What am I looking at here, exactly?” She says it’s the Ryton system. And he’s like, oh, you chose your loyalties. We’re done here.
The Weapon That Swallows a Building
Then we cut to a moment that I think is really telling of what the bigger stakes are going to be. Raffi is on a mission, and she’s on La Sirena, by the way. Yay. La Sirena’s still around.
There’s a whole series of events happening, but at the end of the day, the scary part is she witnesses the engagement of a weapon. It’s like a portal. It’s like portal technology. This thing opens up and swallows an entire building, and then another portal opens up further down the city and drops this entire area on top of another area.
It’s a massively devastating weapon in terms of what it can do, and it’s non-destructive, in that it’s not like a nuclear bomb or a thing that has explosions and a blast radius. This thing literally just shows up, swallows an entire swath of a block or a neighborhood, and then dumps it on top of somewhere else. Just, crash. I was like, what are we looking at?
The Verdict
Star Trek: Picard season three, episode one gets an 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
I thought this was an excellent start. There are a couple of small lazy writing things, but I’m hoping that stuff improves, so I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt. I’m going to start it off soft with an eight.
And that’s where they leave us, man. They actually head off to do this thing, and when they get there, Beverly’s there. They’re there. And they meet her son. And I don’t mean Wesley Crusher.
I hope you’re ready for next week. I’m excited. This weekend I’ll also be over at Best of Trek, Worst of Trek, where we’re going to be discussing the episode during buffer time, along with some other really great YouTubers in the Star Trek space.
I’d love to hear what your thoughts are about the episode specifically. Are you down? Are you excited for where they’re going? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
