Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x05 - "Imposters"

would more logically have been a Romulan.... or does that make me racist....?

 

Something I'm noticing about this season is that it might start getting really hard to grade each episode individually. Yeah each week an episode airs, but watching this episode I started to feel something I didn't feel in Season 2, which was we are witnessing a really coherent story arc that keeps building and building with each episode that when it's all said and done, you might prefer to grade the season once you finish the novel. Where last year I was groaning with the story they were trying to tell because it felt all over the place, this year I want to keep pumping this season into my vains because each episode is a building block upon the foundation that has already been set. It really is a movie told on a weekly episodic scale and I haven't felt something like this since probably the early days of The Flash, or maybe something more recent being Orphan Black or Fringe.

Last week I gave the episode a 10 because I loved the action and just the awe and wonder of the aliens being born. Looking back, I probably should have given it an 8 because there were a few questions I had. This week the appearance of Ro almost made me give this episode a 10, but it wasn't quite there. The stuff with Picard and Ro was amazing, and to finally get some consequences of Ro's decision in Preemptive Strike even though I was not asking for it was something I was amazed and enthralled by. We also got further into the Changeling plot and now Worf has made contact with Picard and I appreciate the two stories coming together. With a half season left, I can't wait to see where we go and the plot thickens.

I think the reason why I'm not giving it a 10 is more preemptive than anything else. I'm now convinced that the hype was real, and I was an ultra skeptic coming in. I'm loving where this series is taking me and I just want to enjoy the ride. If they can stick the landing, this could top Season 5 of DS9 (My favorite Season in Star Trek) for me and that would be quite a feat. I also am hesitant to give it a 10 because I feel like they are somewhat stalling on Jack's visions. I probably should expect it, and we did get some information (regarding him not knowing why there is an issue and how it is related to the Changeling Plot) but we're starting to get into a "lets drag this out" phase of the story and I hope it doesn't get dragged out too much. Also, I'm starting to think maybe Vadic is a nothing character because she wasn't in this week's episode. If that's the case than the time in the nebula might have been for naught. I hope things come together in the second half, but it is starting to become noticeable.

9

Edit:

It was nice to see Kirk Acevedo in Star Trek though. On a night where The Flash pissed me off with a filler nothing episode, to see him in Star Trek as a gangster and it reminded me of his character on Arrow, that was nice.

 

Okay, it had its shortcomings but this was the best episode of the season yet and easily one of the best episodes yet of the entire series.

 

Holy Crap I didn't see this guest star!

 

Wow! Never thought I'd say this. Half way into this season of Picard, and I'm loving it. Can't wait for the next 5 episodes. Just sad it took this long and that it's the final season.

 

Yeah, Ro was the last one I'd have guessed would show up. And they used her properly.

Damn. That was a good return as well as departure.

 

I'm starting to wonder if the Changelings didn't have something to do with the Enterprise-F's decommissioning. especially now that we know that this conspiracy goes all the way up to SFC

 

I'd say 11/10... just for showing you can kill a legacy character while doing them justice (justice for Icheb and Hugh!).

The lights have finally been turned on on the USS Titan. Practically as well lit now as the USS Stargazer was from season 2.

The Picard / Ro scenes almost made me forgive TPTB for throwing out the DS9 book relaunch. Who knows, maybe season 3 will be so good it even justifies season 1!

Was great to see Michelle Forbes receive the "Special Guest Star" credit. They must have had limited time but made it work. Respect for Robert Meyer Burnett, who apparently used to be Michelle Forbes' neighbor and had a good canned answer prepared to not exactly lie but not answer yes/no last summer when people asked if she'd be back.

Congratulations to season 2 writers Christopher Derrick and Cindy Appel for writing this episode.

And, the third promised 12 MONKEYS actor appears, welcome Kirk Acevedo! Thought it would be Emily Hampshire... This explains Christopher Derrick mentioning a Vulcan criminal during the WGA panel in December.

 

Very strong episode. Interaction between Picard and the surprise character was outstanding. Effects were outstanding again. Looking forward to seeing next week already.

 

As somebody who always found Ro's last episode in TNG("Preemptive Strike") to be so-so at best this was a much better sendoff for her character. The first time it was sad and kind of unsatisfying. This time it was sad but noble and felt like a good bookend to her life.

 

I guess the novel canon is dead. lol

But more seriously, I guess they had to do a lot of work to try to fill in a backstory that maybe some people wouldn't even understand, so I want to at least forgive them for the immediate questions of how Picard wouldn't have known Ro was back in Starfleet after all this time.

I get using the feeling of betrayal as this moment of 'honesty' between them that allows them to pass the changeling test, and at least she got a better ending that Hugh, but something about it just felt off to me. It was a meaningful moment, but I guess I didn't entirely like the way it came together.
Maybe I'll be able to articulate my feelings about it with some more thought, but maybe it's just as simple not believing the set up of the reunion.

As for the actual conspiracy, I find myself kind of shrugging at it all. If Worf had actually died, I might feel differently, but there's still no real tension at all and in the grand scheme of the meta story, at the very least we know that the Federation lasts until the 30th Century anyway, so it's the moments that matter to me. Killing Ro off is supposed to give the story stakes, but while I preferred it to Hugh's death in S1, it felt so calculated after the Worf fake out that I felt the influence of the writer moving pieces rather than the the immediate moment of the story beat.

I'm also reminded of how this season started, with Beverly telling Picard not to trust anyone in Starfleet... but even after all this time, we don't really know what she knows. And for whatever reason, she didn't tell anyone else about what she knows for plot reasons, just so Shaw could contact Starfleet and put them in the position to be on the run.

It feels like a jigsaw puzzle put together by someone who was impatient, shoving pieces together that 'kind of' fit in order to finish as fast as they can, even if the completed puzzle looks nothing like the intended picture.

I'm not even sure how I might evaluate the episode... as someone who really liked Ro, I'm glad that they acknowledged her existence. I just wish it was in a different context, but it's not like there are going to be any other opportunities.

 

I know the plan was for her to be the "Kira" of DS9, but I wonder why the character never appeared on DS9 even as a one-off. Like during the whole Eddington saga. Maybe Forbes was done with Trek at the time, or Behr/Moore/whomever didn't want to bring her back.

 

The subtitles say it's Beverly as the vision voice this time, not

Spoiler

the Borg queen

as in the previous episode UK subs

 

So very glad I went in spoiler-free. I don't think I've had a "Oh shit, it's ____" moment like that in a long, long time. Never saw that coming.

Spoiler

Interesting that she was the #1 entry in TrekCulture's "10 Star Trek Characters With Wasted Potential" list posted 2 days ago.

 

That might be my third favorite episode of modern Trek. Very, very nice.

 

Going by the condensed timeframe from S1 to now and how long it would realistically take changelings to infiltrate Starfleet thoroughly, they had to have been inside at the same time Commodore Oh of the Zhat Vash from Season 1 was also compromising Starfleet. 2 evil factions infiltrating Starfleet at the same time and presumably not aware of each other or coordinating kind of stretches believability considerably but this episode was so well done that I'll let it slide...

If Starfleet is as infiltrated as they say, what happened to the originals? Killed? That's probably the biggest mass murder of Starfleet officers in a while, even for Trek. DS9 avoided that entirely where one changeling outright told sisko there were only 4 of them on Earth.

I wonder if the new blood circumvention thing is how the Martok changeling was able to cut his hand and bleed all those years ago, if they tie into that.

Not sure if the theory that Jack inherited being a Borg now are correct. His abilities are reminiscent of an augment's. But people are saying that the red imagery screams pah-wraith possession. One wonders why it doesn't have complete control over him if it is, and why the supposed pah-wraith kills changelings when taking control instead of joining with them.

Also does Picard feel all the Maquis should be locked up? Or is it just his bitterness at Ro specifically? Otherwise he and Seven should have a talk about all those Maquis that Janeway let into Starfleet...

 

Yeah, they were in the running for most dangling loose end in the history of Trek. I'm glad they finally got around to doing something with them.

 

Crazy episode with a lot of twists.

Spoiler

A gangster Vulcan. Not something I thought I'd ever see. Not including Spock in "A Piece of the Action".

My nickname for him is T'Vinny! He has an offer so logical, you can't refuse.

 

I’m glad you mentioned this because how they used Ro was perfect. It wasn’t gruesome or out of nowhere. It was an honorable and very heroic death.

 

This is the kind of bullshit writing on Star Trek Picard that shows that NuTrek writers don't know Star Trek.

"Edge of the Alpha Quadrant" is a useless statement. What does that mean in this context?

Do you know what is one "edge of the Alpha Quadrant"?
Earth.

One "edge of the Alpha Quadrant" (between alpha and beta) is literally in the middle of Federation space.

Writers on Discovery use similar lingo. They just want to say "Quadrant", because it sounds Star Trekish.