I’m blown away, man, and you’re going to be too. This is Picard season 3, episode 3, “Seventeen Seconds.” Picard grapples with an explosive, life-altering revelation while the Titan and her crew try to outmaneuver a relentless Vadic in a lethal game of nautical cat and mouse. Meanwhile, Raffi and Worf uncover a nefarious plot from a vengeful enemy Starfleet has long since forgotten.

I’m not going to bury any kind of lede here. There are spoilers coming, because I’m about to say something that’s going to literally spoil the entire episode.

Who called the Dominion on their bingo card? This guy. Oh my goodness. I’ve had people online tell me that, I’ve seen the fan theories flying around, and sure enough we get confirmation that there are changelings involved.

Cat and Mouse in a Nebula That Isn’t One

Vadic and the Shrike are hunting the Titan down. Sensors are having a really hard time, so neither ship can really see the other. It’s very cat and mouse. It’s very Wrath of Khan. At the end of the day she’s not going to be able to catch them unless she can see them.

Riker’s on the bridge with everyone while this whole thing is happening, and Shaw’s like, what do y’all want to do? They’re in the nebula, they have to find a way to get through, and Picard’s very much, look, we can’t keep running, something has to happen. The sensors are going to get worse and worse the deeper you go in. So what does Shaw order? He orders them to go in deeper.

They go deeper into what they think is a nebula. I say think, because the Vulcan science officer they have (forgive me, I haven’t caught her name yet) is very clearly warning them about the gravity well. Later on she starts telling them she doesn’t believe this is a nebula at all, the way everyone figured from how it looks from the outside. It’s more of an anomaly, which is just Star Trek for big fancy thing that we need to have as a plot device.

Ten Forward, Some Years Ago

They’ve come to a head, they don’t know what they’re going to do, and then we flash back some years to what looks like Ten Forward. They were using the Ten Forward set, and that’s fine. You see a younger Captain Riker and a younger Picard, and the de-aging isn’t bad. Of course it helps that they’re in a darker kind of bar, pub scenario. It’s not the greatest de-aging in the world. It isn’t bad, but we’ve all seen better.

And I love the uniform, by the way. He’s got the squared-off, DS9 style combadge. It’s a new, unique take on the gray yoke uniform. And I’ve got to admit, they did a good job making Patrick Stewart look like early 2000s Patrick Stewart. So, X-Men Patrick Stewart. There are just parts when they’re talking where he looks like an improved version.

Riker’s celebrating the birth of his son. The moment serves no purpose other than to connect the dots for us on the conversations Riker’s going to have with Picard through the rest of the episode. It paints a picture of where Riker was and where Picard is, because Picard is about to learn, relatively speaking, the same thing. Being a parent is important. Being there, being present, is important.

I’ve Changed My Mind About Shaw

Back in the present day, Shaw looks utterly and totally dismayed. What are we going to do? What’s happening? The entire sensor system has gone down, which is why everything’s all staticky. So he literally sends a couple of officers down to the aft of the ship and says, look out a window. Which, I mean, yeah. What else are you going to do? Go find a window, y’all look out of it, everybody report in what you see. Seriously, that’s exactly what you’re looking at.

I have since changed my opinion about Shaw. I like him. I like Shaw a lot. I think Shaw’s a good guy. I think Shaw’s just trying to do his best to keep his crew alive, and he’s a captain who has unfortunately been saddled with a word I believe they’re using way too much in this show: legends. A couple of legends who are ultimately going to cause all kinds of trouble and havoc.

Thank You, Commander Seven

Then you get this really neat moment. While they’re figuring all this out, the word comes down to rest, because you don’t know if you’re going to get much time otherwise. La Forge and a few others get sent off as one of the shifts. She goes to visit Seven, has a couple of words with her, and then she does a really wonderful thing that I love. She says, “Thank you, Commander Seven.”

On Buffer Time a couple of weeks ago (forgive me, that’s the weekend show I do with Best of Trek, Where’s the Trek and some other really great, fun people in the space), one of the folks on our panel, a really informed individual named Dell, brought up the topic that Seven was essentially being deadnamed by Shaw. For those of you playing at home, deadnaming is when you take a trans individual, or some other person who wants to identify in a particular way, and you disrespect them by not acknowledging the name they want to be called. I’m getting it more or less. And that’s what’s been happening. Shaw has purposely been calling her Hansen. She wants to identify as Seven. We all know her as Seven.

So La Forge acknowledging her and saying yes, Commander Seven, is a wonderful moment. I really liked it, especially because I feel like Seven deserves that. She’s earned that.

Frontier Medicine, and the One Storyline That Feels Mashed In

After that we cut to medical, and you see both Jack and Beverly doing their best to help people. The Titan’s doctor comes in and she’s like, what do you think you’re doing? Beverly’s like, put me to work, let me help. And the doctor says it would take her longer to explain. She’s super crappy about it, when these two have been doing true frontier medicine. We’re talking Bashir would be proud.

That’s when Picard and Beverly have the conversation, where they really go into what happened, who Jack is, what that story is. And it’s funny. This is the only storyline that feels really mashed in to me. I feel like it was designed to give us an emotional connection that I don’t know we needed.

Also, I don’t know if you noticed, but the entire episode is rife with musical cues that stem from Star Trek: Insurrection. I haven’t heard a whole lot from Nemesis, but I’ve heard a ton from Insurrection, and this episode is no less full of them.

So Picard’s very angry. He’s upset. Meanwhile, out in the hallway, Jack’s pacing and Riker’s just staring at him. Jack’s like, will you stop staring at me, please? And Riker’s like, bro, you don’t understand. The resemblance is one thing, but now that I’m seeing it full on, the resemblance is stupid. It’s one of those moments where you stop and go, oh wow, it’s unbelievable. Then you cut back into sickbay, and it’s a much quieter moment.

Shaw Goes Down, and Riker Gets the Chair

One of the officers to the rear calls it. She’s here, she’s coming. The Shrike comes up right behind them and attacks, there’s back and forth, and Shaw gets injured. Badly. Very badly. As he’s being carried off the bridge he tells the computer to transfer command to Captain Riker, and then he tells Riker, you get us out of this. You save my ship and you save my crew. He’s taken to sickbay.

Now it’s Riker’s ship, and Riker wants to run. This is when Picard starts telling him no, you need to stay and fight. To get some distance they do this really cool trick. They shoot a torpedo, then hit the torpedo with a phaser, and poof, the shock kicks. It’s the coolest move they do, and I don’t know why you’re not doing more of this, especially if you’re trying to get them out of your way. I would’ve just kept doing that nonstop. Fire, boom. Fire, boom.

Raffi wakes up aboard La Sirena, and of course, who’s with her? Worf. It’s awesome. I love seeing Michael Dorn. Worf is my hero. Worf and Geordi were both my heroes. And seeing Michael Dorn as Worf, doing the whole Klingon jiu-jitsu type thing, you’re just like, oh my God. If he was wearing the white outfit he’d be right at home.

He’s basically telling her they’re tracking some stuff, they want to see what’s going on. They find the guy they believe stole the weapons, some kind of dealer. They go looking for him, they catch him, they bring him back and they begin to interrogate him. And dude, he looks like he’s got withdrawals.

Back on the Titan, Jack’s in medical when Shaw’s brought in. Shaw grabs him and asks, how is she finding us? Jack rushes down to talk to Seven. What do you think is happening here? You’re a former Fenris Ranger, you understand certain stuff. Sure enough, she finds out there’s a leak. It’s a specific type of gas that’s leaking. They go to fix it, and Jack gets knocked out by Lieutenant Slimy Face. I’m sorry, Ensign Slimy Face. Ensign Slimy Face was the one in episode one, when Riker’s doing the inspection, who’s kind of side-eyeing him and giving him the nasty look.

As he’s fighting, you see this shimmery ripple. That’s the moment I was like, oh, what is that? There’s no way this is what I think it is.

Then we go back to the interrogation on La Sirena, and that’s the first time Worf sees it. And he calls it out: “How long have you been away from the Great Link?”

Oh, bro. The minute he says the Great Link, I know changelings are involved. Mark that off on my Star Trek bingo.

Apparently Worf was contacted by someone from the Great Link who is a man of honor, and he’s talking about Odo. The late René Auberjonois is no longer with us, but in spirit he is. The presence of Odo is felt, and that makes me very happy. You get these shades of DS9, and I’m okay with that.

Raffi’s shocked by the entire thing. And apparently the reason the guy was having withdrawals is that he had to turn back into liquid form and regenerate.

The Portal Is the Distraction

On the Titan they’ve almost made it out, but the Shrike follows them and then opens a portal. Vadic’s the one who has the portal tech. Apparently there’s another weapon, so the portal tech is just to keep them here. And you find out from Worf and Raffi that the portal tech is literally not the endgame. It’s the distraction. There’s a whole deeper story happening here and I really want to know what it is.

All the while Picard and Riker continue to butt heads, because Picard keeps telling him we have to fight. They realize there’s a changeling on board, and they’re terrified of that fact. Before they can do anything about it, Ensign Slimy Face sets off an explosion and they’re crippled. They try to fire some torpedoes. The Shrike fires the portal, and the torpedoes come back at the Titan from behind. It’s very cartoon-like, but at the same time it works.

The Verdict

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 3, “Seventeen Seconds,” is a solid 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. Did they have time for all the Beverly and Picard stuff? I mean, yeah.

It’s funny, I kept thinking to myself, golly, you guys are filming this really tight. It’s super tight. Can we get a nice wide shot where everyone’s talking?

But this is, again, very exciting Star Trek. It feels like we’re watching movie after movie after movie every week, and I love it.

I can’t wait to talk more about this show next week. Until then, tell me what you thought. Are you surprised it was the Dominion, or at least a faction of it? Because I’m sorry, when you say changeling, that’s what you’re talking about. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.