There are people online right now talking about why Star Trek deserves to be back on the big screen. Bro, you’re getting Star Trek right now, and it’s cinematic quality.

Picard season three, episode five, “Imposters,” starts with that really amazing shot that pulls from space all the way back to the viewscreen and then through the viewscreen. What I loved about it was that it felt like all of the movies. I’m ridiculously, if not vigilantly, excited for this entire thing.

As we pull back we see everybody in the crew, and it looks like a normal day. It feels very off from last episode. Then Jack Crusher walks in wearing a red command uniform and proceeds to start executing the bridge crew. Oh yeah, that’s a thing that happens. For real. When they push in on him he’s seeing the little red veiny things that are very, I don’t know, Stranger Things, I guess. He’s still hearing the voice, that echo. Find me. Come to me. The whole nine yards. We push in on his eyes and they do this little rimmed red thing, and you’re like, oh, something’s going down. At the very end the voice says come home, and it sounds like Beverly’s voice. I’m believing it’s Beverly’s voice for sure.

Why Do I Love Shaw So Much

Then we get Shaw, Riker, Picard and of course Seven, all in the conference room. Riker hands the ship back and puts it all back under Shaw’s command, and Shaw proceeds to tell them, oh yeah, I’ve already been in contact with Starfleet, they’re on their way. And because Shaw is true to being Shaw, he says he’s going to step out of the room now so they can get their BS story together.

I’m just like, why do I love him so much?

I saw somebody online recently, and people were really going nuts about it. The Seven and Raffi series should be respected, and don’t tell me all of a sudden this new character Liam Shaw shows up and he’s gonna get a show. People get angry. First off, that’s the wrong kind of fan to be. Don’t be that fan.

Second, we’ve seen Seven. We’re seeing Raffi. Both characters are excellent, and yes, they could easily go into almost any kind of storytelling you could possibly want to put them into. But they’re not as fresh as Captain Shaw. By that I mean he’s a fully fleshed out character who clearly has layers to peel away. Seven had her time in that role. I believe Raffi is having her time in that role right now, especially when the show is solving most of her family problems and personal problems right this second.

I want Star Trek in general. I want Jeri Ryan working. I want to see these characters doing stuff. And Jeri Ryan starring or co-starring in another show? I’m sorry, I would never call Riker a guest star on The Next Generation. He’s one of the stars. You put Seven in a show with Captain Shaw, with Todd Stashwick (bless you, sir, you’re doing excellent work, we love you), and I think you’d have an amazing show. So stop with the hate because it’s not the show you want. It’s a show.

I see roads. I see character development we can have with Shaw now. And I’m okay with this entire series being a backdoor pilot to a Titan show, especially if we’re going to get it at this level, this good, this deep. Or you could do the same thing they did with Strange New Worlds and spin it off into a more episodic version. Essentially you Strange New Worlds the Next Generation version of this world.

Jean-Luc Being Jean-Luc

Back on the ship, Beverly wants answers. She’s very much about wanting to know what’s going on. Right after she leaves, Picard has a conversation in the hallway with Jack and tells him that when this is all over, he should consider joining Starfleet. A more honest vocation is what he says.

I get where he’s coming from. This was Jean-Luc being Jean-Luc and not necessarily reading the situation, because I don’t believe you invite Jack to Starfleet. I think old Next Generation Picard invites Jack to Starfleet, because where else would he want to see a son of his work other than in Starfleet?

Worf Never Got His Happy Ending

Then you get this really interesting moment where Worf and Raffi are working out on, I was about to say the Cerritos, on La Sirena. A communication comes through and you find out it’s his handler. They were asking for permission to investigate Daystrom, and that permission is denied. So they go around it. They figure out they need to head back to Sneed’s place to find some answers, especially because they’ve discovered there’s a guy named Krinn who might be responsible. Krinn’s an interesting character, so stick around for him.

While the two of them are practicing, I don’t know why I had the thought, but I put it in my notes: Jadzia made Worf calmer. She brought him more stability in his life. And it seems like now, without her, he has no purpose. Worf never got his happy ending, and I don’t think he’s going to get it, and I feel that’s sad. The character himself is functionally becoming his own form of MacGuffin. Oh, Worf’s involved in this, and that, and whatever else.

They show the Starfleet file for Krinn, by the way, and it’s good to see the little JPEG profile picture has survived.

Those Were the Days

When Starfleet arrives, it arrives in the form of the Intrepid. They’ve got a security detail that tells the Titan to power down and then proceeds to take a shuttle over, and everybody’s like, what the heck is a shuttle doing here?

So Shaw, Riker and Picard are all in a turbolift together, heading toward where security’s gonna meet them, and Shaw is humming. He’s just into his own world. He’s like, sorry, I’m feeling chipper, and not because you guys are about to have your butts handed to you. They come back with, well, Starfleet’s got to know how many times we’ve saved the galaxy. And he goes, yeah, no, totally. Or maybe they remember the time you crashed a saucer section into a planet. Or the time you created a paradox in the Devron system. Or the time, and he just keeps going.

It’s wonderfully shot, and now that we know who this character is, I love it. He walks out, Picard looks over at Riker, and it’s that scene you’ve seen from the trailer. Those were the days.

Dude, that’s how I see it too. That’s one thing I realized about where the show is right now. You’ve created the adventures we watched with The Next Generation for seven years, plus everything we haven’t seen between the lines, and now you’re at the point where a character has to go, how did we survive all that? They’re looking over their shoulder like, wow, that’s kind of ridiculous. But sure enough, that’s where we are.

Ro Laren, Thirty Years Later

The minute I saw her I clocked all the things. She’s not wearing an earring. Her hair doesn’t look right. She barely looks Bajoran anymore. And she wasn’t in Starfleet anymore, so what happened?

For those of you playing at home, anybody who knows the Next Generation story knows that when Ro Laren joined, it was a rocky relationship. She was a semi-regular character. She wasn’t a full-blown cast member, but for the duration of the season she was on you saw her pretty regularly, in a bunch of really great episodes. Then there was the one where she finally has to infiltrate the Maquis, and you find out that she has betrayed Starfleet. Even back then I realized there was more to it than just the quote-unquote betrayal.

Which, by the way, thank you, Terry Matalas, for digging deep into the crates and going back into our storied Star Trek past. Try saying that five times fast.

The idea that Ro is investigating for Starfleet Intelligence, I find that fascinating. She also has a new uniform, so Starfleet’s currently in the process of rolling out yet another one. I think it’s bigger than security, a version of a new uniform they’re moving toward, probably because they onboard those things by department or whatever else.

A thought just occurred to me. Can you imagine a version of a series where you get to see the characters we know suddenly working for Starfleet Intelligence and having to be spies? It’s amazing.

And apparently she’s there to arrest them for treason. That’s right, boys and girls. Treason.

Ro takes Picard to question him while they’re transporting most of the crew of the Titan over. Ro is harsh and Picard is harsher. They start out headed toward sickbay, the plan changes, and they go into the Ten Forward holodeck program and have a very deep conversation. It’s a thirty-year conversation, and even Picard says as much. You find out both of them felt betrayed by the other. I do believe firmly he saw Ro as a daughter. It’s a wonderfully poignant conversation.

Once they both admit they are who they are, because he’s like, I’m assuming by this level of pain that we both are who we say we are, she confides in him. There have been 11 incidents. It all focuses around Frontier Day, this big celebration where the entire fleet is going to be on display. The security protocols for the whole thing aren’t available even to Ro, and she’s in Starfleet Intelligence.

We’re touching old threads again for the first time in years, and it doesn’t play as nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. It’s wonderful. I love everything they’re doing right now.

Command Red

While Picard has stepped outside, he asks Seven for one more favor, and the idea is to hide Jack in plain sight. Put him in a uniform. What color is it, boys and girls? That’s right, it’s a command red uniform, just like the one he had on in his vision when he was running around killing everybody on the bridge. He doesn’t want to put it on, but ultimately he has to.

We cut to sickbay and you see Beverly doing what we’ve seen her do in Star Trek. I’ve got to tell you, having Beverly Crusher back has reintroduced a lot of classic next gen elements I didn’t even realize were still there. Normally it was Ogawa or some other nurse she’d be talking to, and here she is again talking through her diagnosis out loud. What she’s discovered is that they’ve evolved. Changelings can now pass the blood test. Apparently it’s standard protocol for people to get scanned when they come aboard a ship, and that’s not going to save you either.

I like where they’re headed, because all the areas where we felt like we were safe, we’re not. Good on you, Terry Matalas and the folks of Star Trek.

Then we’re back on Jack, and he’s hearing more voices. This time they’re saying very specific things. Find me. Connect us. And he’s seeing all this red.

For some reason my thought was, is this somehow related to the Stargazer incident with Picard and the Ferengi? At the very least it reminds me of the Ferengi mind control device, even if the Ferengi aren’t involved past Sneed. It’s not relevant to this episode. It’s just a theory I’ve got, a little fan theory crafting.

Jack shows up and you think he’s gonna kill the transporter chief, but nope, once more it’s a vision in his head.

Worf Is Dead

Worf and Raffi go back to M’talas Prime, and the whole town’s been in a big uproar ever since Worf killed the Ferengi, Sneed. So Worf kneels down and he’s like, I am waiting for the ecosystem of this area to right itself. It doesn’t take long. A guy shows up, he’s a Romulan, and he’s the Krinn they’re looking for.

I’m a big fan of the actor who’s playing him. I don’t have his name right now, I forgot to look it up before I started recording, but he’s a really good actor, and he’s playing this really interesting Romulan gangster character.

Krinn tells them that in order for one of them to make it out, they have to fight. Worf is like, we have to do this thing. I watched that moment at least two or three times and I don’t see where he may or may not have signaled her, but apparently he let her in on something. They fight. She stabs him. Worf is dead.

That’s right, I said it. Worf is dead.

And it’s funny, in this moment I said to myself, I believe Ro is Worf’s handler.

Then we find out the Romulan is a Vulcan after all.

Take the Ship and Run

Back on the ship, security’s looking for Jack pretty hardcore and not finding him anywhere. The whole thing is super intense, and all this cat and mouse eventually gets you to the point: there are changelings on board both ships.

Ro is going back to the Intrepid with some security people, and the security people plant a bomb on her shuttle and leave. Two others join them. Picard and Riker are trying to tell Shaw what’s going on. She comes on screen and she’s very clear: don’t trust anybody. She’s left them with a skeleton crew, and before she left she looked at Picard and said take the ship and run.

Ro sacrifices herself, and it’s huge.

Who called that the Titan was going to become their ship, their vehicle of choice for this series? This guy. I’m so excited, because I want to see it.

I still don’t know why Jack’s seeing the Upside Down, though. I’m very interested to see what’s up, especially because when he’s confronted with those changelings he goes all Jason Bourne. Seriously. He disarms them in seconds and ultimately kills all four.

Shaw’s finally on board with all of it, because he realized they had to escape as torpedoes were being fired at them from the Intrepid. He flat out tells the ship that Starfleet’s been compromised. They’re running, man. Shaw cared about his crew and he didn’t want to see them become fugitives, but he’s got really no choice at the moment.

The Intrepid, and a Galaxy Class Rumor

The Intrepid looks kind of like discount Titan. Whatever. I’ve always dug the two nacelles on the side wings deal. I’ve been a big fan of that design look ever since the Constitution class and eventually the Galaxy class.

Which, by the way, rumor has it there’s going to be a Galaxy class at Frontier Day. I’d love to see whether they brought the D out of decommission or just rechristened a new Galaxy class. How dope would it be if the new Enterprise was actually a rechristened Enterprise D with a new designation? Or it’s just the Enterprise D, and you get the new Enterprise later on. I’m not sure who’s commanding that one.

The Earring

Then we get this awesome moment where Picard and Riker are talking about Ro, and Picard’s like, I don’t know why she gave me this. It’s her Bajoran earring. Riker looks at it, takes it and puts it on the computer. Old school spycraft. Then it’s all these holo displays, and it reminds you of that moment in Avengers: you have homework, a lot of homework.

I’m 100 percent okay with Riker making that leap. Some people might not be. Some people might say it’s just lucky, you’re telling me he thought of this? I was super impressed by that moment. I thought it was dope.

There’s a very espionage feel to all of this. I don’t think they’re gonna go so far back as the season one little bug guys, but we’re definitely in that territory in terms of how big the scale of this thing is. We went from a show that felt excellent as this small, very personal story, and suddenly we’re in saving the galaxy territory. Galactic ramifications.

The Verdict

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 5, “Imposters,” is an 8.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

There were a lot of moving parts, but I really enjoyed it, and this series has been very consistent. I liked it a lot. I thought it was excellent. It didn’t blow my socks off just yet, but we’re close, man. I feel like my socks are close to getting shot off.

I can’t wait to see next week’s episode. This has been one of the most satisfying series I’ve seen in a long, long time. Very satisfying, and that’s key for me.

Tell me what you made of Ro Laren coming back, and whether you’d watch Seven and Captain Shaw on a Titan show. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.