Season three of "Picard" continues to be the show we wanted, rather than the one provided for the last couple of seasons and this one has more returning characters and countless references to the wider Star Trek adventures.
With Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Worf (Michael Dorn) on board, the crew of the Titan pool their information and arrive at a plan. They head to the Daystrom facility, to attempt to discover what weapon, worse than the portal gun, could also have been stolen in the raid. Raffi, Worf and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) board the station but are met by a difficult yet oddly familiar security system. Meanwhile the Titan has to escape, so leaps to the Starfleet Museum, where Geordi La Forge (Levar Burton) is less than pleased to see his old crew.
So, there were lots and lots of references to the wider Star Trek Universe in this one, ranging from attack tribbles and the Genesis bomb, all the way up to seeing Voyager and Kirk's Enterprise. Each of these is accompanied by a little sting of the theme tunes associated with them, which, lets be honest, is cheesy as hell, but it made me smile and I'd imagine anyone that's stayed with "Picard" this long would feel the same. Two more characters return to the fold too. Brent Spiner has been in the series before though, with a Doctor Soong featuring heavily in the second season, he's back as another new character here, a blend of Data, Lore and Doctor Soong and with a new body (and slightly ropey explanation for why the character has aged). Levar Burton returns too though, for the first time in twenty years - not counting a couple of video game appearances.
It's not just a reference fest though, the episode pushes on the stories and does some work explaining what's going on. Jack's visions are, hopefully, under control - though whenever you hear about a character having a terminal condition, it always implies to me that a valiant sacrifice is coming, particularly as he's starting to flirt with La Forge's daughter. There's a pretty clever action scene, Vadic kills one of her own men - classic villain behaviour and we learn what the other theft from the station was - which offers more questions than answers.
Still good stuff.
With Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Worf (Michael Dorn) on board, the crew of the Titan pool their information and arrive at a plan. They head to the Daystrom facility, to attempt to discover what weapon, worse than the portal gun, could also have been stolen in the raid. Raffi, Worf and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) board the station but are met by a difficult yet oddly familiar security system. Meanwhile the Titan has to escape, so leaps to the Starfleet Museum, where Geordi La Forge (Levar Burton) is less than pleased to see his old crew.
So, there were lots and lots of references to the wider Star Trek Universe in this one, ranging from attack tribbles and the Genesis bomb, all the way up to seeing Voyager and Kirk's Enterprise. Each of these is accompanied by a little sting of the theme tunes associated with them, which, lets be honest, is cheesy as hell, but it made me smile and I'd imagine anyone that's stayed with "Picard" this long would feel the same. Two more characters return to the fold too. Brent Spiner has been in the series before though, with a Doctor Soong featuring heavily in the second season, he's back as another new character here, a blend of Data, Lore and Doctor Soong and with a new body (and slightly ropey explanation for why the character has aged). Levar Burton returns too though, for the first time in twenty years - not counting a couple of video game appearances.
It's not just a reference fest though, the episode pushes on the stories and does some work explaining what's going on. Jack's visions are, hopefully, under control - though whenever you hear about a character having a terminal condition, it always implies to me that a valiant sacrifice is coming, particularly as he's starting to flirt with La Forge's daughter. There's a pretty clever action scene, Vadic kills one of her own men - classic villain behaviour and we learn what the other theft from the station was - which offers more questions than answers.
Still good stuff.