I don’t think the stakes on Star Trek: Picard have ever felt higher than they do in Dominion, and I’d argue last season was technically playing for more. Season two had the potential galactic ramifications. This one’s actually making me feel it, because there’s no help coming from the outside. It’s strictly the Titan. They can only depend on themselves.
This is a very special episode for me, and I’ve got a guest. Mrs. Know-It-All joined me for this one. Why is it special? Well, one, it’s Star Trek: Picard, come on. They’ve all been really awesome to see. But it’s also my birthday, so we’re celebrating, and there’s no place I’d rather be at three in the morning than right here with her.
She hasn’t said anything about Picard on the channel and we’re in season three. She came into Star Trek as a new person with Picard season one, during the pandemic, when we were watching it together. That’s what got her watching Strange New Worlds. So in her words, today’s kind of cool: it’s the last season, it’s my birthday, and she’s starting to really like Star Trek, which she knows is probably one of the best birthday gifts she could give me. Absolutely it is.
And of course I couldn’t do this any other way than in my leather jacket, because apparently it’s all leather jackets on there now. Sharp little look they’ve got going this season. I’d love to know what it is you put in the replicator to get a Starfleet standard issue leather jacket.
Captain Tuvok, and the One Thing a Changeling Can’t Copy
The episode starts in the Chin’toka sector, apparently, in this junkyard where the Titan is hiding, and we get a really great cameo right out of the gate: Tim Russ as Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager.
What’s awesome about that is Tim Russ has been in tons of different things over the years. Fan films, all kinds of stuff. He plays a Vulcan or something like it, and once in a while I think he’s even cameoed as Tuvok in a fan film someplace. So seeing him here is a treat.
And then you find out. Mrs. Know-It-All loved that Seven knows that tiny, itty bit of information, that one personal piece the changelings don’t have. They may be able to mimic somebody genetically, or real close to it, but they can’t know everything. They can’t get the personal, in-depth memory. She loves the way Seven is always exposing them. Seven’s like the exposer.
She’s right, and when you follow that thought through, it gets very insidious. The changelings can get into every corner of Starfleet now. In concept that’s scary. It’s something else when you see it happen to a character who’s as classically Star Trek as Tuvok.
And of course he’s a captain. Who else would be? I was talking to someone online the other day and they were like, why is everyone suddenly a captain? Bro, they’re all old. You don’t stay put, unless you’re Harry Kim. He’s the only one who stays an Ensign forever. That’s a Star Trek inside joke, and I apologized to my wife for it. She told me to explain it to her later.
We’re On Our Own
So they’re working through what to do next, and Geordi’s like, I don’t know who else there is, we can’t keep doing this. And Picard is very much: then we’re all alone.
That’s the line that sets the stakes for me. Mrs. Know-It-All made a really cool observation about the moment he says it. That was the first time she’d seen him that determined. We’re on our own.
Jack Hears What Sidney Is Thinking
Then we get Jack in the turbolift, and Jack is seeing and hearing things. Specifically, he’s standing with Sidney and he hears her thoughts for the very first time. So whatever neural inhibitors they put on him aren’t working.
I don’t know that this necessarily has to do with Irumodic Syndrome or not. Either way, he can hear her thoughts, and if he is a changeling, he seems to be the only one that can do that. You guys would know this if you follow the show: I’ve speculated that either he might be a changeling, or possibly Beverly’s a changeling, or something along those lines.
My wife thinks it’s going to be something we don’t expect. Her feeling is that the more you think you know, the more you don’t know. A hundred percent.
It pays off later, too. Sidney’s thinking, I wish you’d be more subtle, like, I don’t know, touch my hand or something. And what does he do? He touches her hand. She’s like, what did you do that for? And he’s lost, because he’s going through this thing again.
Are They Writing Themselves Into a Corner?
I’m really interested in just how deep this whole thing is going to go, in terms of taking us into this espionage realm. And I said it at the end of the episode and I’ll say it again now: I really hope they’re not writing themselves into a corner. I need to check how many episodes are in the season, because the stakes keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and I don’t know that we’re on the other side of that hill yet.
Mrs. Know-It-All understood where I was coming from, and she came at it from the other angle. I’m so immersed in the Star Trek world and she’s not, and from where she sits, they’re doing okay. She’s following just fine. Now, if there are only eight episodes, we have a problem. But she’s really impressed with how Star Trek ties up its loose ends, there’s a lot of information coming at her, and she’s very confident she’s going to get some closure and some answers and that this all comes together.
I’m confident too. And honestly, I feel so happy about this, because now she understands what the rest of us are all excited about. She’s getting the best version of what a Star Trek show should be.
It reminds me a lot of Next Generation, and Terry Matalas comes from that world. He was a PA on the show back in the day, and then eventually Voyager and whatnot. I feel like they’re very much moving toward creating a more cohesive universe, and that’s why I’m like, dudes, hashtag Star Trek Legacy. Give him another show. Give him any other show he wants that takes place in this universe, and I think you’re going to have a really successful original show. That’s just me.
Lore, Data, and My Wife’s Theory
They’re trying to use Data. They’re trying to go into him, talk to him and get more answers, and Lore keeps coming out. You find out Lore and Data are the only two personalities that have dominance. The B-4 and Lal and Soong personalities are more like memory files to be accessed. Lore and Data are hard wired in, and they’re fighting.
I don’t know. I feel like it’s a trope to have Data be that weak in the setup, only because Lore was always the more aggressive of the two.
Mrs. Know-It-All has a theory, and I told her to run it. She thinks that toward the end of this, whether that’s the season or even next week’s episode, we’re going to see Data emerge more. All Data really wanted was to be more human, and he doesn’t have that set of emotions the way Lore has. So by the end, she thinks we get a complete Data. And then, unfortunately, in her words, we all know what’s going to happen at the end.
I hope not. Let’s see.
Done Running
Jack goes and talks to Picard. He tells him, look, there’s more happening, I don’t know what’s going on, we need to figure this thing out. That’s when they decide they’re done running, and what they do is allow Vadic to find them.
So Vadic and the rest of them board, and through this really cool cat and mouse with the force fields, Vadic gets captured. Picard and Crusher are the ones who confront her, and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen them look as dangerous as they look in that scene. The look on Picard’s face when he’s confronting Vadic, I was like, okay, this might be a side I’ve never seen. We both felt it.
We’ve seen him in some rough, compromising positions over the years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him be dark. And then you think about it, and it’s because it’s his kid. Here’s the thing: if something like that were remotely to happen to Baby Know-It-All, I’d burn the world. Seriously. So I feel where he’s coming from.
Vadic Tells You Where She Came From
Then Vadic gets to monologue, and by that I mean she runs down everything. You find out the origin of this offshoot changeling group, and that’s what they are, an offshoot.
Come to find out, during the war, at Daystrom Station, Section 31 was experimenting. There was a scientist doing it, and the face Vadic uses is the face of that torturer. They’d captured changelings and had them in vials. I had it at eight or nine, and I think she said six. They were experimenting on them, probably to eventually find the disease and whatnot. But what would anyone like Section 31 do? They were trying to create spies. Like somehow they could brainwash the changelings.
Mrs. Know-It-All felt like Starfleet didn’t see them as sentient beings. More like androids. And she’s right, like the dummy kind of androids: we can use this as a technology, and it doesn’t have feelings or sensations or anything.
So eventually they break away and they create this new group. Apparently the Great Link isn’t impressed or happy with them and just wants to use them as fodder, basically. They’re a means to an end.
Who Wears Picard’s Face
You also find out the role Picard was going to play in Frontier Day, and it’s one that requires being able to pass a genetic test. So they have to go deep. That’s why they stole Picard’s remains, and with Jack they can create a cross-infused facsimile that’ll be able to pass.
I think it’s going to end up being Vadic who takes on the form of Picard. I could be wrong about that, but I’m fairly certain that’s the end game.
My wife sees it differently. She thinks Jack is the one who takes on the look of Picard, and that while Vadic and the changelings think it’s over, that’s how our people save everything. That’s awesome, and it’s a long way ahead of where I was.
Geordi Finally Says It
In the meantime, Lore has taken over the ship, which is crazy. He flips the entire thing on them and releases the changelings.
And Geordi has this amazing moment where he’s looking into Data’s eyes, Lore’s eyes, and he just tells him the truth. He says, listen, you are my best friend. I miss you. You changed me. You made me better. It was wonderful, and I was like, God, talk about a guy who’s had thirty years thinking to himself, I never got to say the thing I wanted to say to my friend.
Lore’s just like, oh, such a good attempt, whatever. But eventually Geordi gets through, and Data starts helping them as much as possible. I’m hoping we start seeing more of that, because I believe Data is the better personality.
Vadic breaks out, obviously, because of Lore. She ends up taking the ship, Seven has to stand down, and everybody tries to fight. Shaw gets his butt handed to him. By the way, Todd Stashwick, I couldn’t be sadder to see you bloodied again.
I’ll tell you what, that’s hardcore.
Right about there Baby Know-It-All wandered in, tired, which is also how I found out where my other combadge went. So I got to finish this one with my crew, my personal crew, here for my birthday. Thank you guys so much for being here.
Mrs. Know-It-All and I split on this one, so settle it: does Vadic end up wearing Picard’s face, or does Jack? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
