I was afraid at first that this would end up as just the fanwank to end all fanwanks, and the first scene after the teaser with Picard reminiscing about the past with Laris almost looked like it would to confirm my fears at first. But in retrospect, I liked the nostalgic touches popping up everywhere.
Special mentions to the title card with Jerry Goldsmith's rendition of the Alexander Courage fanfare transitioning into Jeff Russo's Picard theme, then the scene continuing with the camera slowly zooming off the famous Enterprise-D painting with the two musical styles blending into each other. Overall, Steven Barton's score seems to be an amalgam of Jerry Goldsmith's and James Horner's cinematic styles lending the production a nostalgic retro feel, taking a few cues introduced by Russo wherever appropriate. It worked especially well for me with Picard and Riker's ruse on the Titan-A, where Shaw and Seven ended up mirroring the roles of Styles and Scotty from The Search for Spock. Shaw, of course, goes out of his way to prove himself an asshole for the sake of being an asshole at any opportunity. Question is, is he in on the conspiracy or is simply someone whose obstructive tendencies would inadvertently play into their hands?
As Picard was holding the Ressikan flute and talking wistfully about old friends and fond memories, the soundtrack played Anij's theme ("New Sight" from Insurrection. It wasn't the only leitmotif from that movie, and when Beverly called him on his old combadge, the soundtrack took some cues from the "conspiracy" theme that originally played when Picard and Data discovered the recreated Ba'Ku village inside the holoship. Maybe because of the Insurrection connection, the ship that accosted them at the end also reminded me of Son'a designs, so who knows. We also had First Contact references, most obviously in the ending theme and Picard unlocking the secure channel with his security access code from that movie.
Poor Raffi almost had me convinced she legitimately fell off the wagon again. I was glad to find out she's only undercover, but it seems like Starfleet Intelligence hasn't become any nicer to their undercover operatives since we last saw O'Brien on Farius Prime. I wonder if her mysterious handler is legitimate or if she's being misled (as of typing this, I haven't read any of the spoilers about it yet). And of course, I guess we will soon find out how the quantum tunneling technology relates to Beverly's predicament. As for her, I think the usage of Hellbird, that Picard specifically doesn't know, as a code phrase, is a sign that she deliberately wanted Picard to get the rest of the Enterprise-D crew involved.
All in all, this episode was a terrific opener for the season, even if it felt rather like simply setting up the stage for later. I don't think I remember an episode from the Kurtzman era where the fact that this is but the first act of a ten-hour movie could be seen this easily. That wasn't to the episode's detriment, however. If anything, it makes me even more excited for the next hour.
Lastly... M'Talas Prime? Oh, Terry, you rascal.