TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1

TL;DR – It is the beginning of the end, and I don’t think I am ready

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

Oh wow, I can’t believe that we are already at the penultimate of Star Trek Picard. It is a show that feels like it was always with us, and also one that has gone in a blink of an eye. Well, today we get all out horses into line because the apocalypse is upon us and someone better stop it.  

So to set the scene, at the end of last week’s Broken Pieces, the crew of La Sirena was about to do something monumentally stupid and that was to jump into the Borg’s transwarp network to get to Coppelius before the Romulans can blow it out of the sky. Well, this week we open with them doing just that, only they didn’t know that Narek (Harry Treadaway) was following them, oh and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) has her own Borg cube now. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Nepenthe

TL;DR – Picard comes home

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Nepenthe. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

Today we look at an episode that I think everyone has been excited for since that first trailer dropped last year. The moment that Picard (Patrick Stewart) meets back up with Will (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna (Marina Sirtis) is something that has real power to it. However, if the show keeps looking back, can it move forward? Well, that is what we look at today.

So to set the scene, after last week when Narek (Harry Treadaway) activated Soji (Isa Briones) by trying to kill her, Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) took Picard and Soji deep into the Borg Cube to the Queencell. Here they used a failsafe transporter to take them off the cube at to Nepenthe. This week we open on when they arrive but waiting for them is not a friend, but a hunter with a bow and the arrow is ready to be loosed. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Stardust City Rag

TL;DR – This episode starts with a deeply emotional moment, then goes into high farce, and then back again without missing a beat.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

tar Trek: Picard – Stardust City Rag. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

There are moments in TV that you never knew you want right up until the moment they air and then you wonder why it is that you had not wished for that before. In today’s episode, we get that but also we get something I never wished to pass and it still pains me to think of it.

So to set the scene, we open in on the Seven Domes on the planet Vergessen in the Hypatia system … and well that is all I can really say without hitting spoilers so far it would make your head twist. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Absolute Candor

TL;DR – We have a crew, repeat we have a crew, this is not a drill

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Absolute Candor. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review


For the first three episodes of the season Remembrance, Maps and Legends, and The End is the Beginning, it felt like we were setting the scene, getting our call to adventure, our call to the stars, we were building the world, and in one word bringing it all together. But now we are in space, and it is simply pure joy.

So to set the scene, we start back in time in a fateful time where Picard (Patrick Stewart) on Vashti when he was happy. He was starting to move people out of Romulus, making friends, establishing real progress, however, then the synthetics attacked Mars and everything went to hell. In the present, the crew of the La Sirena have come together on their task, only now that they are in the Beta Quadrant, Picard has another calling, to meet some friends from the past and write some past wrongs. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – The End is the Beginning

TL;DR – We have a crew, repeat we have a crew, this is not a drill

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – The End is the Beginning. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

Okay, if I am going to be honest, if there is one thing that will always sucker me into a show, it is a group desperate people coming together to form a crew. Well, today, we get to see Picard (Patrick Stewart) do it all again and I am here for it.  

So to set the scene, in last week’s Maps and Legends we learned a couple of important things. First, there is either a Romulan mole in the midst of Starfleet in the guise of Head of Starfleet Intelligence Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita) or the head of Starfleet Intelligence is like just kill with Romulan assassin squads romping around Earth … I’m not sure which is worse. Also secondly, we discovered that Picard or JL to his friends has burnt all the goodwill he had left in Starfleet. Well, what do you do when all your options are closed, well it’s time to wing it Picard style. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Maps and Legends

TL;DR – Here we get to see the drive of the season and some moments that really show who this current Federation is

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Maps and Legends

Review

After the excellence of the first episode, the next question is can you keep that momentum moving which is a whole new problem all in itself. But if the first episode Remembrance framed this new world, Maps and Legends gave it context as we deal with its fallout.

So to set the scene, we go back in time to the fateful day on Mars when the synthetics attacked. We had seen part of this in the Short Trek Children of Mars, but now we get to see what happened on the ground as the synthetic F8 (Alex Diehl) is hacked and turns on his crew and assists in the destruction of the planet. Meanwhile, Picard (Patrick Stewart) begins his search in earnest to find Dahj’s (Isa Briones) twin sister Soji (Isa Briones) who is currently serving on a derelict Borg cube called ‘The Artefact’. Here he tries to go through the right channels only to get that thrown back in his face. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Remembrance

TL;DR – This is a wonderful start and the best thing I can say is that I want more as soon as possible

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Remembrance. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

Oh boy, if there is one thing I have been excited about this year it has been getting a chance to get my eyeballs on Star Trek: Picard. Well now it is here and I couldn’t be happier. For so long there has been this almost fear that you can’t go past Nemesis in the timeline, well now we have and it’s about time.

So to set the scene, it have been 20 years since the death of Data (Brent Spiner) during the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and the pain still wears heavy on the heart of  Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) who has now retired from Starfleet to run his family’s vineyard in France. He is burdened by his past, his losses and failures like with Romulus. Meanwhile in Boston, Dahj Asha (Isa Briones) is enjoying an evening when masked figures beamed into her apartment killing her boyfriend and interrogating her. But just when all is lost, something inside her is triggered and a killer is let lose. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – Star Trek Short Treks: Children of Mars

TL;DR – An emotional gut punch as you watch it all unravel  

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Short Treks: Children of Mars. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

Can you tell a compelling and heartfelt narrative in seven minutes with very little dialogue? That would actually be quite a challenge but today we get to look at an episode that does just that as it builds to a moment that breaks you.

So to set the scene, we open in on April the 5th, First Contact Day, a day of celebration but for two girls living in San Francisco it is a day of sadness in part. For Lil (Sadie Munroe) her dad (Jason Deline) is stuck working on the Mars Orbital Facility and can’t make it downwell to see her. On the other side, we have Kima (Ilamaria Ebrahim) whose mom (Joy Castro) also works on Mars at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. In a moment of sadness, Lil accidentally knocks over Kima on the way to the shuttle pick up making Kima late for school and then it all spirals in from there.    

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TV Review – Star Trek Short Treks: Ephraim and Dot

TL;DR –  A love letter to the past and a beautiful story in its own right  

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Short Treks: Ephraim and Dot. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

It has been a long time since Star Trek ventured into the realm of animation, indeed, The Animated Series to this day fits awkwardly into the Star Trek universe thanks to the question marks as to its canonicity. But today Star Trek takes some steps back unto this uncharted frontier with a Short Trek full of joy and beauty. 

So to set the scene, we open in on a documentary called The Tardigrade in Space as it explores the life of a humble tardigrade Ephraim flying through space looking for a place to lay her eggs. A place that is warm and safe, which is what she found right up until the moment the USS Enterprise appears out of warp and trashes the asteroid she had picked. But then a starship with a nice warm warp reactor would be the perfect place to lay her eggs, unfortunately, a DOT-7 maintenance droid called Dot has different ideas.

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TV Review – Star Trek Short Treks: Ask Not

TL;DR –  A look at a bad day that only gets worse once a mask is revealed  

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Short Treks: Ask Not. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

We continue our look at the Short Treks with this interesting small almost bottle episode. However, like all good bottle episodes, while it does not venture out of one location for most of its run time, it takes that opportunity to pack an emotional punch.  

So to set the scene, Cadet Thira Sidhu (Amrit Kaur) is working in inventory at Starbase 28 when all hell breaks loose. Just as she is trying to work out what happened a security officer (Steve Boyle) arrives with a prisoner hidden behind a mask. The battle has led them cut off from the brig and she has to watch the prisoner until they can return. This is a difficult situation, made all the worse when the mask is taken off and it is revealed that prisoner charged with mutiny is Captain Pike (Anson Mount).

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