The deadly cat and mouse game between the Titan and the Shrike continues in the nebula, while Raffi and Worf uncover a conspiracy that could destroy the Federation. Picard learns how much one’s life could change in a mere “Seventeen Seconds”; Picard Season 3 episode 3 written by Jane Maggs & Cindy Appel, directed by Jonathan Tiberius Frakes.
Mark Turetsky: Will, I’ve invited you here to this bar to celebrate! I’ve broken out my best whiskey, tucked the kid in for the night, put some Just For Men in my hair and applied only the most exquisite FaceApp filters to commemorate this occasion.
Will Nevin: I’m afraid we only have 17 seconds to talk. Or maybe I only liked 17 seconds of this episode. One of those two things is true, I think.
Adventures in Parenthood
Mark: I take it the brunt of your dislike of this episode comes down to big revelations about Beverly and Jean-Luc’s relationship, and her decision to hide Jack from his father?
Will: You know what they say about assumptions, Mark: They’re frequently wrong. Most of the Jean-Luc ‘n’ Bev stuff worked (aside from Picard immediately dismissing it in what was many, many off-key discussions with Riker), and I could buy her keeping Jack a secret. In the largely unexplored post-Nemesis, pre-Picard era, it sounds like our guy was a diplomatic fireman, handling whatever the Federation could throw at him — and that sure does sound like a dangerous line of work. His son would naturally be a target, and I like this explanation better than what Carol Marcus offered up.
It’s not that Beverly disapproved of Picard’s life or the choices he made (although there seems to be some of that, sure) — it’s that she wanted to keep her son safe. That’s a reasonable response to an extraordinary situation. But, say, isn’t it weird how the topic of safe sex and/or abortion never came up? Has that ever been a discussion in Trek?
Mark: It actually does, albeit briefly! And it comes up in the case of a Starfleet Captain who’s a target for every bad guy in the galaxy, it turns out. Will,
All joking aside, I’m wondering how much Patrick Stewart suggested this plotline, given that his father was a domestic abuser and he’s publicly talked about his fear of becoming his father.
I think this explanation for who Jack is and why Picard didn’t know about him works, as far as these things go. I imagine Bev stayed off Spacebook for the past 20 years and kept a low profile. It’s a big galaxy and I imagine keeping a secret as big as this is possible, if difficult, even though the Enterprise computer seems to have access to all kinds of records for even non-Starfleet Federation citizens.
This scene also gives McFadden and Stewart a great opportunity to act. Beverly has been either in action mode or unconscious so far in this season. And let’s face it: even when Beverly was given a lot to do in an episode of The Next Generation, she never got the big dramatic stuff that Stewart or Brett Spiner or even Michael Dorn got.
Will: The medical bay scene between Picard and Beverly is by far the highlight of this episode because there’s so much history to play with between these two characters — a history and a relationship that doesn’t seem to be ignored, like in other spots in this episode. Again, far from something I disliked, this was my personal highlight.
But here’s the thing I keep turning over in my brain: Has Beverly been right all along? Is it not Jack Crusher — but Jean-Luc Picard’s son — that everyone is after? And how does that figure into the conspiracy (but not that “Conspiracy”) that we see in this episode? There sure is stuff I didn’t like here, but if nothing else, this season has opened some interesting doors.
Mark: Yes, the question of “why Jack” remains a mystery. And if they’re so dead set on getting him alive, why was he left to die, seemingly by one of the conspirators late in the episode?
But back to Picard and fatherhood, despite his profession that he wouldn’t have been a bad father, he dismisses the idea of even acknowledging Jack almost immediately to Riker. It’s as if he’s made up his mind that it’s too late to form any kind of bond with his son. Clearly this is being set up for his change of heart late in the episode where he nearly loses his Jack, as he re-creates Riker’s 17-second turbolift ride to sickbay. It doesn’t exactly ring false to me, far from it. It’s an acknowledgement that Picard isn’t perfect, and has serious trouble with letting people into his life.
Will: False, no, but maybe a bit ham-fisted. I actually entertained for a moment that Jack was going to die right there on the table (maybe that’s another one of the show’s wonderful contrivances — it doesn’t make sense for the saboteur to kill Jack, but he needed to have a near-death experience for Picard to reflect on) and I’m glad they turned away from that — it simply would have been too much narratively.
Mark: My current theory on why they need Jack is not because of who he is, but that he knows something that they need to get out of him. He must’ve come across lots of things in his life as a spacefaring rogue. Perhaps it’s something he doesn’t even know is important. And it’s almost certainly related to what his hallucination of Seven told him, “connect the branches.” But I’ve got my theories about the conspiracy, which I’m sure we’ll discuss later on.
A Captain And His First Officer
Mark: While the emotional meat of the episode rests with Picard’s family life, let’s not forget that there’s still an ongoing space battle going on outside of that sickbay. The Shrike is picking apart the Titan and it does not go well.
Will: Hoo boy, now we’re getting into the stuff I didn’t like. Space submarine warfare is super awesome, but it comes off as tryhard when this series does it, especially when we saw it done better in Strange New Worlds.
But the thing I hated, hated, hated — and this goes a little into Beverly’s work in sickbay too — is that Picard is framed as a failure and Riker tosses him off the bridge as such in a callous move that absolutely ignores the history of the two characters. We don’t want heroes, especially ones we love, being set up to fail or pushed aside for being too old. “Relics,” the TNG episode that features James Doohan reprising his role as Montgomery Scott, is a hard watch because Geordi La Forge is a real hard ass (after some pushing) to this character we’ve spent decades adoring. It’s the same here with the Titan’s doctor basically telling Beverly to get out of her way — although at least Beverly has a moment of triumph when her experience allows her to save Shaw’s life.
Picard, though? He just gets to be wrong in his constant refrain for the Titan to stop and fight and for Riker to hold it against him. Where’s Data to explain that a weapons attack against the Shrike would be useless given its portal technology?
Mark: It also gives us a scene that’s entirely too reminiscent of the argument between Worf and Picard (as well as Picard and Lilly) from First Contact, where Picard calls Worf a coward for wanting to destroy the Enterprise. Except in this case Picard is the subordinate who thinks he’s got the better plan. Again, I can only see this conflict between Picard and Riker in terms of it clearly being there to set up conflict that’s going to be resolved at some point in the next few episodes.
As far as the portal weapon goes, it’s a great sci-fi weapon, and used pretty inventively here. I saw some speculation online that the secret weapon would be the Genesis device, but that would clearly be a step from homage to outright repetition. And we’ve already seen the portal weapon used on the attack against the Starfleet recruitment center, so we should have seen it coming. Still, Riker blaming Picard for falling into the trap laid by the portal gun when nobody else on the bridge (I’m looking at you, T’Veen) figured out that it could be used in that manner, it’s a bit too much, I agree. I can rationalize it as Riker just being angry at the situation in general and directing that anger towards Picard, but it doesn’t really play that way.
Will: I hated the “You’ve killed us all” line, and I hated Frakes’ read. I’m starting to think he’s not a great director.
And here’s a theory for you: What if Lore was the big bad thing stolen from Daystrom?
Mark: Oh, I’ll do you one better: what if it’s Lore and Moriarty? We know both characters are going to show up. What if it’s all the imprisoned AIs being held at the Daystrom Institute (as seen on Lower Decks, “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”)?
Will: The equivalent of a break-in to a bioweapons lab, eh? Interesting…
A Conspiracy Unmasked
Mark: Here’s the part of the episode that worked so incredibly well for me: the team-up I never knew I wanted, Worf and Raffi. Worf’s reintroduction last week was fun, and he cut off a bunch of heads with his kur’leth, which is all well and good, but we got his actual reintroduction as a character here, aboard the La Sirena. His introduction says it all: “I am Worf, son of Mogh. House of Martok, son of Sergey, House of Rozhenko. Bane to the Duras family, slayer of Gowron. I have made some chamomile tea. Do you take sugar?”
It acknowledges the huge vastness of his story thus far (seriously, Worf has had more hours of Trek than any other character, more than twice as much as Spock) and it gives us hints about where he is in his life. He used to just be “Worf, son of Mogh,” but here he’s embraced both sides of his heritage, both Klingon and Jewish Belarusian. I didn’t know it myself, but having him back onscreen is the most excited I’ve been about any returning character in this series.
Will: He was stronger in that scene as compared to the interrogation (which seemed a little too talky) but I agree it was a good reintroduction to the character. But, Mark, I know the thing you’re really excited to talk about: We got Changelings, dawg! And they’re afoot! And somehow knew the Titan was going to come after the Shrike?
Mark: The thing about Changelings: they could be anywhere. They’re probably everywhere! Is it a coincidence that one was aboard the Titan, or do they just have one on every ship? It certainly seems like they’ve got their gooey talons in the Klingon Empire, the Fenris Rangers and elsewhere in Starfleet.
But yes, the fact that this became a follow-up to Deep Space Nine is the bit I’m most excited for, far more than the TNG reunion aspects. I don’t have any hope that any of the remaining DS9 cast might show up. Odo got a shout-out in this episode, and obviously the late Rene Auberjonois won’t be appearing, but I think that might be the extent of it. Still, O’Brien might be a logical choice to sneak into this reunion.
I’ve never been so glad to be wrong about something as I am about who the Big Bads would turn out to be.
So is Captain Vadic a Changeling? Her crewmembers don’t much look like they’re Jem’Hadar, but it’s possible. And what’s their goal, aside from revenge? The Changelings on Deep Space Nine were an ideological foil for the Federation: they conquered the Gamma Quadrant because they were driven by a need for order in a galaxy that feared and hated them. Whatever terrorist attacks they aimed at Starfleet were done in the name of destabilizing the quadrant in order to eventually conquer it. So what’s driving them now?
Will: I can’t help but think the Changelings are a feint — that this is some plot within a plot. But I also thought Frontier Day was going to be a major plot point, so what the fuck do I know?
This show could do a little more exploring the post-Nemesis political landscape. Who are the galactic players right now? The enemies? The allies? We don’t know a lot because we’ve gotten two and a half seasons of interpersonal drama. Some (not all or even most) of that has been good, but we don’t know much about the big bads of the galaxy in the early 25th century aside from what we can infer from the future explored by Discovery.
Mark: Don’t forget: Lower Decks is also post-Nemesis, and we even got to see some of Riker commanding the Titan on that show. Another show you should watch.
Will: I ain’t here for cartoons, Mark.
Mark: Personally, my money is on the Changelings seeking something even more important to them, something that ties in thematically with the rest of this season. I think there’s a Changeling child they’re after. It was an absolutely huge plot point in Deep Space Nine, with the Changelings willing to trade the entire alpha quadrant to get Odo back in the end. What was it Riker said about being a parent at the beginning of this episode? “You’d burn the world to save them?”
Will: Remy Auberjonois is an actor. Wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world.
Mark: Ha! That would be perfect!
Make It So On and So Forth
- If you’d like to check out the Twitter account of a Titan crewmember/extra having her best life, head on over.
- The nod to Picard’s father and the references to his status as an android are reminders that, yes, the first two seasons of this show did happen, even if they don’t matter all that much.
- Rene Auberjonois’ great-great-great-grandmother was Caroline Bonaparte, the sister of that Bonaparte.
- Is there any doubt that the nebula is some kind of living organism? It wouldn’t be the first, and we need some exploring strange new worlds to go with our Star Trek.
- As the Titan moves deeper into the nebula, the music cue is a nod to James Horner’s “Battle In The Mutara Nebula.” It’s not quite the same, but it certainly brings it to mind.
- How did Jack knock out that Changeling? Or was he just faking being knocked out to maintain his cover?
- Amanda Plummer didn’t get to chew as much scenery in this episode, and frankly, that’s a shame.
- We learned that the Shrike is a redress of La Sirena’s lower deck, which is a much better production budget trick than the first season’s “Oh, Picard is staying on the holodeck, and he wanted it to look like his vineyard” nonsense.
- Shaw actually gives his bridge crew a break, and for that he might be the greatest captain in Trek history.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
