Shut up, I’m not crying. You’re crying.
I don’t even know where to start. It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time to talk about Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 9, “Vox.” I didn’t know this was everything I wanted. If you’re not as mushy about all of this as I am, I apologize, because I’m about to blubber all over this thing.
Yeah, man, this is one of the greatest episodes of television for me, ever. I don’t even know if I need to bury the lede on what my rating’s probably going to be.
I’m going to encourage you to watch the previously on. Normally I don’t. But I was in between getting ready and getting some things in place before I record, the openings were going, and I stopped and watched it. I didn’t get a chance to skip it. And it got me, man. It did the job I think it’s supposed to do these days, which is twofold. It reminds you what you saw last week, and it’s designed to propel you forward and make you remember the key things the story you’re about to see is built on. I’ll tell you what, watch it. It was fun.
The Red Door Opens, and It’s the Borg
We jump right back in where we left off. Troi is helping Jack, talking him through the potential of opening the red door. She opens it, something flashes, and we hear some very familiar sounds. My good people over on Buffer Time are going to have a fun time talking about this one, and I’m making myself available to be on that show, because I really, really want to discuss this stuff with you guys.
I’m not going to bury the lede. It’s the Borg.
She hears it, she flashes out, and she rushes off, and Jack’s like, what’s going on? It’s the clip they put out last week. When she gets back, she begins to explain. There are elements that were in Picard after he was assimilated that were dormant. According to Geordi, they weren’t able to detect them 35 years ago, and that’s why we didn’t know they were there. It’s the reason he was always still able to hear the Borg. And those dormant, latent things are now in Jack, on a whole different level.
There’s so much in this episode, by the way. It’s a really packed episode in terms of story, and somehow everything was palatable and everything was serviced well. I’m super proud of you guys for pulling off that particular hurdle, because I’m telling you, it’s not easy to do. Chef’s kiss.
Jack Takes the Guards, Then the Shuttle
Then Jack and Picard talk. There are protocols in place, especially where something like the Borg is involved. So when Jack tries to leave, there are two guards there, because Picard asked them to be there. Essentially he’s got to be under arrest. We have to figure out what’s going on with him. Have to. There’s too much at stake.
That’s when Jack does the little red eye gimmick, they turn, and he takes control of these security guys. To me, that’s the moment I knew just how dangerous this whole thing could be. Then he steals the shuttle and takes off.
Data goes to comfort Picard, and it’s such a great moment that I never knew I was going to love completely and utterly. Yeah, I’m fanboying as hard as I could possibly fanboy about this episode, and unapologetically so.
This is when Geordi calls Picard down and says there’s something else you need to know about Jack. That’s when he explains all of it about the Borg, what it did to him, and the full depth and gravity of it.
The Borg and the Changelings, Together
The next part is that, apparently, the Borg and the Changelings were working together. And it just blows my mind, because I thought we put a button on the Borg storyline. I can’t tell if this is a retcon or if we’re just moving forward with whatever, because I’m like, where are the Jurati Borg people versus these Borg people?
So somewhere there’s still this Alice Krige Borg, because that’s where Jack goes when he leaves. He goes to a specific place and he encounters this ginormous Borg thing. I think it’s supposed to be a cube, but at the end of the day it looks like a giant Borg mountain in the middle of a nebula of some kind. And it’s Alice Krige, from Star Trek: First Contact. That Borg Queen voice. They don’t show her face, but Jack encounters this Borg Queen, and it’s pretty intense.
I really like her acting style. It’s the way she kind of eats the words. You can tell she’s chewing on that. Chewing the scenery for sure, all day. I love that actress and I love her performance from First Contact, which was brilliant. So I’m definitely in it to hear more.
Frontier Day
Then you get Frontier Day. We get to experience parts of it, and it’s utterly amazing. And we finally find out who the captain of the Enterprise-F is. It’s Admiral Shelby, from “The Best of Both Worlds.”
It’s wonderful symmetry, what Terry Matalas is juggling here. It’s like we’re walking through a field of member berries, and none of it feels contrived. Or at the very least, it’s the best kind of fan service. I’m loving everything I’m seeing. I don’t care if it’s the corniest thing ever. It’s amazing and wonderful, and I know you guys are loving it too.
And oh my god, I love it so hard that they actually call Shelby out. Picard’s like, does she not see the irony in presenting a system that’s so clearly Borg-like? Because essentially it is. They’ve put the entire fleet into formation, and that fleet is massive.
You find out very fast that somehow the Changelings got on all of the Federation ships. There’s a finite number of ships, so this is totally plausible and doable. They’ve been infiltrating the transporter system, and what they’ve been putting in it is Picard’s Borg DNA. The post-Borg DNA, I mean. Remember, the synthetic Picard doesn’t have any of that anymore. The guy we know now, who has the mind of Picard, doesn’t have any of that stuff in him. That’s why they needed his body from Daystrom.
So everyone of a certain age, immediately you begin to see the little green lines. They all begin to get Borgified. It’s the collective now, and only the geriatrics are left to save us. And I’m like, let’s go.
I was so blown away by how they did it. It’s so insidious, and it’s wonderful. Good storytelling does this. They’ve built the stakes so high, and now we move into the next part, which I’m so excited for.
A Moment for Captain Shaw
I’d like to take a moment to remember a fallen officer. A moment for Captain Shaw.
No, but seriously. Shaw, why? But it was beautiful. I thought his redemptive arc at the end was wonderful. Hearing him finally acknowledge that the ship is hers. And he calls her Seven of Nine. I liked it. It was a good ending, and I felt it was an honorable one.
In my opinion, you still get Star Trek Legacy. You still get the same writing and the same stuff, and now you get a little bit of honor and memory to go with it. They’ve totally paved the road. Yeah, man, make Seven a captain. Make her captain of the Titan. Let’s do it. That would be amazing.
Would I have liked to have Shaw a little longer? Absolutely. I believe his character is a wonderful paragon of the kinds of characters Star Trek can afford. By that I mean, not everybody’s black and white like they used to be.
Hangar 12
They need a ship. They need something that’s not in the fleet, because the fleet’s now in this formation system. And Geordi tells them, well, let’s go back to the fleet museum.
I’m such a mess right now because of this. You’ve no idea. I didn’t know it was going to hit me this hard. No clue, because I’m not normally like this. Well, that’s not true. If you look at my last Picard seasons, when I was talking about Q and whatnot, I got emotional.
Anyway, we go to Hangar 12, and it’s the USS Enterprise-D.
Apparently there’s some Prime Directive stuff that said they couldn’t leave the saucer section on Veridian, because Veridian was an undeveloped system, and someone traveling through space would eventually arrive there and find it. Prime Directive nonsense and shenanigans. So they recovered the saucer section, and for 25 years Geordi has been restoring it.
The flyover is amazing. Then they walk onto the bridge and all the systems turn on, and it’s our systems. It’s our stuff. The bridge is lit, and it’s great. And then Picard makes a joke that’s awesome. He says the one thing he missed the most: carpet.
Oh dude, it’s over. I was a mess.
Then they realize they’re going to get underway. Everybody goes to stations, and everything from Picard laying in a course to Geordi saying “Aye, Captain,” it’s all the things. It’s just amazing.
Now offset that with this terrifying moment of the Borg having taken over Starfleet. Starfleet are now the Borg. And you juxtapose it with this heartwarming, wonderfully nostalgic moment. I’m willing to call this nostalgia porn. It was beautiful and wonderful, and I was super excited for it.
And then the computer voice being Majel Barrett, the first mother of Star Trek.
Bro, you’re doing the Lord’s work, man. If anyone deserves a Star Trek Legacy show, hashtag Star Trek Legacy, we all need that under this man’s tutelage. Give us this entire era, because I feel like you understand it, and I feel like you can carry that torch for us.
The Verdict
Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 9, “Vox,” is a 10 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
Come on, man. Really? I have a feeling they’re going to slam dunk this for me, but I’m going to 10. I’m going to 10 on the back of the heights of emotion that I felt. I believe this is an excellent story, being told by excellent storytellers who know this fandom. They are us. They’re us.
Next week is the final episode of the season. I don’t know how you top the penultimate, but they’re going to try. I know it.
When you gush about Frontier Day, and I know you will, do it where I can see it. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
