Star Trek: Picard - S2 E1 - "The Star Gazer"
Star Trek: Picard - Season 2 Episode 1
"The Star Gazer"
My very own rambling, overly detailed, not-so-quick recap.
We finally learned how grapes are harvested in the 25th century – by transporter.
Yup, it's the 25th century now. According the vintage date on Picard's new wine cases the year is 2401. So we're starting out 2 years after Season 1.
Laris is still living at Chateau Picard, but Zhaban has been gone for a year-and-a-half now. It wasn't made clear why, but I suppose he died. In that time Laris has developed feelings for Picard, but he seems to have relationship issues that were unknown in TNG. He had a couple of relationships in TNG, didn't he?
In a flashback to Picard's childhood we meet his mother, who may have been abused by his father. We learn she was the one who inspired his interest in the stars, by telling him to look up. She has a British accent, too. Haha.
A starship called the USS Avalon discovers a spatial anomaly.
Picard is Chancellor of Starfleet Academy. Raffi is back in Starfleet with the rank of commander. Elnor is the first fully Romulan cadet at the Academy.
Seven is back with the Fenris Rangers using Rios's ship La Sirena, and fights off thieves trying to steal medical supplies she's transporting. She merged all of Rios's holos into one, Emmet, who is her only crew member. Emmet detects the anomaly and tells Seven about it.
Agnes and Soji are on a diplomatic mission to Rariton IV in the Beta Quadrant. One of the inhabitants flirts with Agnes but she isn't interested, explaining that she was only recently cleared of murdering her last boyfriend due to alien-induced temporary insanity. Rios contacts her and she leaves Soji on the planet, beaming up to the starship where Rios is now captain. It's the new USS Stargazer, NCC 82893. Complete with four nacelles, just like Picard's. Rios has to go investigate the spatial anomaly and wants to take her brain along.
Back at Starfleet Headquarters (or maybe Starfleet Academy, not really sure), Picard tells Raffi he's thinking about changing the Kobayashi Maru test, while Raffi seems to miss Seven, and Elnor receives a book from Picard to help him adjust to being the only Romulan at the Academy – The Many And The One, written by Spock when he was a cadet. Raffi and Elnor leave on the Excelsior, presumably for a training mission.
Rios and Agnes arrive at the anomaly aboard the Stargazer. They analyze it and find it unremarkable. Seven shows up with La Sirena and hails Rios. He's not happy with how she's taking care of his ship. She says a few dents look good on it. A loud audio signal suddenly comes from the anomaly, but the universal translator can't figure it out. Agnes performs some analytical wizardry and determines the signal is several voices at once, all saying "Help us, Picard."
In Los Angeles, Picard visits a place called Forward Avenue Historic District. He goes through a doorway with the address of 10 above it. Get it? 10 forward? I got a kick out of that. It's a bar owned by Guinan, and he meets her inside, giving her a bottle of wine from Chateau Picard. They sit and talk. She gives Picard relationship advice (kind of), presumably sensing his problem with Laris.
Afterwards, Picard is back at the chateau when a Starfleet admiral arrives and tells him about the signal from the anomaly naming him personally. She offers him a new combadge, and he's off to investigate. Laris comes in after he leaves and watches him fly away, looking rather melancholy.
Picard is greeted by Seven aboard the Stargazer. On their way to the bridge she talks about how it's the first ship of a whole new class using technology from the Borg cube artifact (from season one). She seems apprehensive about that. They get to the bridge and Picard greets Rios and Agnes.
Picard hails the anomaly directly. The anomaly loudly responds, "Picard." Things go south from there.
A huge, strange-looking ship emerges from the anomaly. Seven senses the ship is Borg (it's been over 20 years since they were practically wiped out by Cpt. Janeway). Many other Starfleet ships begin to arrive. One of them is the Excelsior, with Raffi in command.
Picard, Seven, Agnes, and Rios try to figure out what to do. Picard and Agnes want to see if the ship is friendly, Seven wants to destroy it ASAP. The ship hails them and wants to negotiate with Picard alone, in person, by sending their queen as an emissary. Rios is having none of that and orders the fleet to raise shields. A beam shoots from the ship and penetrates the Stargazer's shields. A figure materializes on the bridge, looking more like a faceless android than a Borg queen. "Well, that's new," says Agnes.
The queen says she wants peace, but first requires...power.
Borg tubules shoot out of her and into nearby bridge consoles. Seven and a crewman try shooting phasers at her, but her Borg shields hold and the queen shoots the crewman in return. Several others on the bridge start shooting, but again her shields hold and she shoots them all simultaneously. They're just stunned, though.
Agnes checks a console and discovers the queen is accessing command codes for all ships in the fleet and has started assimilating them. Picard orders the Stargazer to self-destruct. As the countdown nears zero the Borg queen tells him to look up, just like his mother used to, and then the Stargazer explodes.
Picard wakes up on the floor of the chateau. Looking around he notices things are different, including the combadge he's wearing. Laris isn't there, but a synthetic servant named Harvey is. Picard wonders what is happening when offscreen we hear Q say, "Mon Capitan, how I've missed you."
Q looks young at first, like he did back on the Enterprise, but then he ages himself to "catch up" with Picard.
Q asks Picard if he remembers what he said the last time they parted ways, that the trial never ends?
"Welcome to the very end of the road not taken," says Q.
Suspenseful music. Hard cut to black. Roll credits.
The Ready Room
Sir Patrick Stewart Discusses Star Trek: Picard Season 2
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Wow. That writing your own recap stuff is hard work. You gotta take notes while you're watching and everything.
I friggin' loved this episode, though. Totally thrilled with it.
Not that it matters, but did they even mention that Picard is a synth now? If so, I missed it.
What did you guys think?
Yes, I've done them in the past. It's seriously tough.
I won't be able to watch it until at least after dinner tonight, possibly even tomorrow. I'll come back and read the recap after I've seen the episode.
I seeded recaps from online last season. I may have to go back to that, lol.
Okay I did watch last night. I thought it was pretty good.
There was the alien metamorph Kamala that "bonded" with Picard. The Ba'ku leader Anji, Jenice Manheim Picard ghosted in Paris, Marta while Picard was in the Academy, the Star Fleet lawyer Phillipa Louvois, Nella Daren - a stellar scientist assigned to the Enterprise, Vash while on vacation on Risa, AND last but not by any means least Dr Beverly Crusher who I still big-time crush on myself.
Guinan has a subtle mention to him being synthetic now.
I wonder if the family he had in "The Inner Light" would count, too. Maybe not, since the life he experienced was pre-programmed into the probe.
Saw it last night and was kinda meh about it, mostly because Picard doesn't seem to have the powerful presence he's had before
There was a passing mention of him being a synth towards the end of the episode
Agreed, sadly. I think a lot of his gravitas was due to his voice, and that is getting pretty raspy now.
That's what I think as well and maybe a little of his carriage/posture as well
I wonder if Patrick Stewart's age has something to do with them only making three seasons? Next season will be the last.
I think that's likely as well. Although as someone mentionned last season even if Patrick couldn't carry on they could always replace him with a different actor and just say that his character had received a new synth body
Loved it, except for Emmett, whom I find to be as annoying as Seven apparently does. He was kind of funny when he was a bunch of different holograms, but not as one security officer/therapist/engineer/etc. all rolled into one.
Picard had relationships in TNG, but he also had relationship problems. There was the whole Beverly Crusher slow burn thing, and a few others, but it was always clear that he was so wrapped up in being a Starfleet captain that he would never really let any woman in.
I'm glad to see Q has returned. He was always hilariously infuriating. I don't think anybody but John De Lancie could have played him.
I think I preferred the individual holograms, too.
Soooo...what was up with that Borg queen? Why did she look like an android? Was she supposed to be all tech, head to toe, or an assimilated humanoid wearing a mask or something?
And why did she need power? They can open a rift in spacetime but she needs power? Or did she mean power as in military strength, by assimilating the Starfleet ships?
Also, where exactly did Seven transport those two thieves to?
And one more...Did anyone else laugh a little when Picard was talking to Laris about the hard work of the harvest being done? I mean, come on, hard work? Everything they showed was automated, including grapes being transported off the vines and labels materializing on bottles, lol.
Right? Taste a grape, smile, watch it be transported into a basket on an automated floating - tractor, or whatever.
Real farmers or gardeners know hard work (right, Dig?), and that ain't it.
You know it.
It was really warm today and I spent a couple of hours starting my garden prep this evening. It's still too wet to till, but I did some digging and moved some dirt around. You know, moving buckets of good stuff out of the now decomposed trash pile to poor areas. Also did some raking and hoeing down the asparagus rows to clean them up before it starts growing again, which won't be long now.
The first work in the garden every year always makes me sore. After a few months of winter and being inside, not to mention all the holiday food that gets consumed during the lazy season, I am feeling it right now, lol. I could have used a transporter to move that dirt around.
I found some carrots, though. I didn't even know they were there. Hardly any of my fall stuff came up last year, but I guess a few carrots ended up growing after I gave up. Got about a dozen decent ones tonight, still firm after sitting out there all winter. Gonna cook them in the morning.
We are all definitely looking forward to seeing your garden photos this year.
I'm going to try to incorporate some flowers out there this year. Spiff things up a bit. I don't know if I'll succeed at that, but I'm gonna give it a try.
It was warm here today. I weeded and cleaned out my strawberry bed. They're already putting out runners. Also stacked a load of firewood the neighbor brought for me and gathered up the branches that the wind took down over the winter and piled them up to burn. I imagine I'll feel that work tomorrow. It's supposed to be warm tomorrow, too, but may rain.
The dog "helped" and is now snoring in my lap.
My yard is covered with those, but not necessarily from wind. My trees just seem to drop twigs and sticks as a matter of course, and over the winter they accumulate. I'll only bother picking up the larger ones, though. I'll let the mower chew up the rest, lol.
Not to do with Picard, but I found a interesting cookie in the latest episode of Discovery. Remember that big alien from DS9 that was always nursing a drink in Quark's and never said a word the entire series, despite being in almost all episodes? Saw the same alien, or a member of the same species, in a bar scene on Discovery. Laughed when I saw that.
Morn! And he was sort of an Easter egg/cookie himself. He was an homage to Norm of Cheers.
Yep, I forgot about that one.