As the starting point for the re-launch of what may be the most anticipated new Star Trek content since the hype ahead of 2009’s first Kelvin Timeline film, the first episode of Star Trek: Picard’s third season drops us straight into the action and kicks off with a classic — and surprisingly rare — pairing of two Trek legends.
 
You can count on one hand the number of times Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) went out together by themselves on a rollicking adventure, but as showrunner Terry Matalas exerts his influence on this final season of Picard, that’s exactly what we get in this season opener. And it’s a blast, to say the least — the appropriately-titled “The Next Generation” is a perfect starting point for the final season of a series that everyone knows by now is scratching that TNG Season 8 itch.
 
This first episode is a “good old fashioned road trip” for the two TNG leads, and does a nice job of setting up one of the central themes of this season: how do the connections and decisions we make define our family, both chosen and by blood? That theme runs throughout the first half of this season and begins quickly here with a number of set-ups in just a few minutes.
 

We open with a tense action sequence centered around Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), who has uncharacteristically been isolated and out-of-touch with her former Enterprise crewmates for more than 20 years. She is on a mercenary medical ship, the SS Eleos, on the outskirts of Federation space and being chased by mysterious alien raiders, who she manages to stop — but not before being seriously wounded in a firefight.

Returning to Earth, we find Picard getting ready to move away from the chateau to a new planet and settle down with Laris (Orla Brady) — but before the family manor can be packed up, he receives a mysterious message from estranged friend and former lover(!). The cryptic distress call from Crusher includes a direct warning for Jean-Luc: “No Starfleet. Trust no one!”

The plea for helpt leads him to reach out to Riker, his greatest ally, who immediately alludes to trouble at home with his wife and daughter (Deanna Troi and Kestra, last seen in Season 1’s “Nepenthe”). That’s a lot of familial upheaval to pack into the opening moments of the season.

Her ominous message is seemingly validated when their clandestine meeting at Guinan’s LA-based Ten Forward bar is being monitored by a human figure up to no good — and who insultingly dunks a model of the Enterprise-D, “one of the fat ones,” into a shot glass as the pair leave the bar to begin their adventure.

Riker’s big plan (actually, it’s more of a “ruse” than a plan) is to help Picard stage a routine surprise inspection of his previous command, the refit USS Titan, and to somehow convince the ship’s prickly captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) to reroute to the Ryton system — and lend them a shuttle to get to Crusher’s location just outside Federation territory. The ruse is bolstered by the reveal that Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) is Shaw’s first officer, where he requires her to uncomfortably bear her human name — Annika Hansen — while on duty.

With the reveal of the new Titan design, the production team on Picard has once again outdone themselves in every possible way. The new “neo-Constitution” design (formally the Constitution III-class on the ship’s dedication plaque) is glorious, with a a look that is both familiar and unique, with views from every angle that illustrate the magic originally captured in Matt Jefferies initial Enterprise design almost 60 years ago.

The visual effects of the ship in and around Spacedock, accompanied by motion picture-esque swells in the score, celebrates a very specific era of big-screen Star Trek through a wondrous sensory overload of historical Trek sounds, images and ambiance. In particular, the score from Stephen Barton wonderfully captures that era with a mix of bombastic swells and subtle melodies that sometimes borrow from the source material in such a way that it is hard to tell what is new and what is being repurposed. It’s a special piece of work.

Impressively, even in the face of all those great production choices, the single best thing about the Titan-A is the introduction of its captain, played by Matalas’ former 12 Monkeys baddie Todd Stashwick. Captain Shaw is a revelation in that you might initially think he is a stuffed shirt that has somehow ‘failed up’ in regard to how he treats Picard and Riker — and Seven for that matter — but it’s no spoiler to say that he gets more impressive in every appearance he makes through the first half of this season… while also not changing in any way.

In fact, one of the most surprising elements of these early installments of Picard Season 3 are the new characters as a whole. Just before we meet Captain Shaw, Seven introduces Riker and Picard to another new face, Sidney La Forge (Ashlie Sharpe Chestnut), who is instantaneously magnetic as the ship’s young pilot — who we will see more of as the season progresses.

La Forge’s introduction is one of the many scenes and moments in the series similarly modeled after something we’ve seen in the films. This one, of course, echoes Kirk’s introduction to a young Demora Sulu in Star Trek: Generations. Offspring of a beloved crewmate at the helm? Check. Stealing a starship out of Spacedock? Check. Majestic shuttle approach to said starship? Check. A veteran starship commander handing the reins to a less experienced officer to “clear all moorings” and pilot a ship out of Spacedock? Check.

Matalas and Trek boss Alex Kurtzman have compared this season to a 10-hour Next Generation movie to give the TNG crew a much-deserved swansong,  and that is what we are getting in both subtlety and substance.

After a fantastic dinner scene in which Shaw dismissively shuts down Picard and Riker’s “plan” by revealing his love of structure, his disdain for “bee-bop” jazz, and his aversion to the Borg, he also reveals something important to the viewer. “I love you. I do. I love reading about your wildly-exciting and equally irresponsible adventures,” says Shaw, who means every word of that, despite his unwavering focus in making sure his ship is run as a reflection of himself. It’s an exciting introduction that pays off repeatedly in the season ahead.

With Shaw not budging, it’s down to Seven, who is fighting her own internal battle to “ignore [her] gut, to ignore [her] instincts and just to follow orders,” which, of course, she doesn’t do — defying Shaw and rerouting the ship to the Ryton system, then arranging for Picard and Riker to steal a shuttle to go find Beverly.

Meanwhile, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) is fighting a similar internal battle in the episode’s other main story thread, serving Starfleet as an undercover intelligence officer on M’Talas Prime (which was first name-dropped all the way back in Star Trek: Enterprise’s “Dawn”). Raffi is responsible for some excellent technobabble and exposition in trying to track down some “experimental quantum tunneling tech” that was stolen from the Daystom Institute’s off-site station, which in the wrong hands could be used as a weapon (give or take a few technos and babbles).

It’s not easy seeing Raffi so isolated again and spiraling into a role that requires her personal demons to be so close to the surface. Her only contact with Starfleet is via a disembodied handler who communicates solely by text. The short, stilted language of her confidant is supportive, but direct, especially when cryptically encouraging her as a “warrior.” (Hmm!)

Raffi’s intelligence work is successful in uncovering a plan to use that “quantum tunneling tech” to destroy a Starfleet recruitment center gearing up for upcoming Frontier Day celebrations — marking the 250th anniversary of the United Federation of Planets’ founding — and the dedication of a beautiful statue of Enterprise-C captain Rachel Garrett, covertly referred to as “the red lady.” However, she is too late, arriving at the facility just in time to see it destroyed, despite her pleas for help.

As always, Hurd is up for the challenge of going deep into Raffi’s psyche, conveying her strife with a performance that bleeds off the screen and continues to feel fresh. For Raffi, the sentiment shared by Picard and Riker as they admire the view of the nebula in which they are searching for Beverly, could not be more fitting. It’s the kind of thing you “spend half-a-life chasing, and the other half missing the chase.”

It’s a poignant way to say none of them will ever truly complete whatever mission lays in front of them.

Once on board the Eleos, it’s nice to see Picard and Riker jump into action again as they quickly dissect the scene and piece everything about the alien raid together, including a notable reference to a “kill shot, straight down, cool, efficient.” Picard insists that their friend would only do something like that defensively, as Riker notes it “doesn’t sound like the Beverly I know.”

But we know the truth from the episode’s opening moments, where we saw Dr. Crusher systematically kill an intruder to protect her ship and its cargo. That cargo includes a young man who dramatically reveals himself after first getting the jump on Riker before letting down his guard once Picard convinces him they are there to help — and who is he, viewers may ask? None other than Beverly Crusher’s unexpected son.

Ed Speleers is another strong addition to the cast, and when he announces to Riker and Picard that he is Beverly’s son, everyone in the room seemingly knows what that means. The truth of those reveals will come in later episodes as we get more of Speleers’ excellent performance. For now, we are left to a single scene with the actor where he dynamically breaks down the struggles that he and his mother have faced in being hunted by a foe who has tracked them to multiple destinations — where each time “they had different faces.”

And with that, we are left with a 40-second long, grandiose, villain ship reveal of the deadly Shrike vessel to close out the episode; another moment reminiscent of more than a few Star Trek films. It’s an additional triumph for the visual effects team and portends just how effective the previously-announced Amanda Plummer is in her role as Vadic — but more on her next week.

MOMENTS OF STASHWICK

We think Todd Stashwick and his portrayal of USS Titan captain Liam Shaw is destined for Trek icon status — each week this season, we’ll be highlighting one one of the character’s (and actor’s) best moments.

This week, Captain Shaw says that he “likes structure, likes meter, likes keeping tempo and time” — and that is absolutely on display as he learns what Riker and Picard are up to. He immediately takes control of the situation, issuing a confident command to his crew to “lock down” the Titan before turning to Seven and proclaiming that she just “loyalty’d [her] way to the end of a career.”

Like it or not, that’s one bad-ass captain acting decisively.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• Star Trek observation master and friend of the site Jörg Hillebrand is credited as a ‘research consultant’ on this episode, indicating his love of the franchise’s finest details has made a direct impact on production. (Good for him!)
• The Titan-A flies through the Star Trek franchise logo which opens each episode this season.
• “In the 25th Century…,” the opening card seen this episode, is a direct callback to the “In the 23rd Century…” card which opens Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
• The song playing over the first approach to the Eleos is “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” by the Ink Spots.
• As the camera pans through Beverly’s ship, the S.S. Eleos XII, we see a number of her personal belongings, including a string of pearls from the holodeck adventure in “The Big Goodbye,” a pair of theatrical masks representing her directing background on the Enterprise-D (“The Nth Degree,” “Frame of Mind,” et al), a 2370s-era blood sample hypospray (DS9’s “Paradise Lost,” et al) Jack Crusher’s old storage container (seen in “Family”), an award for eradicating the Phyrox plague on Cor Coroli V (a feat described in “Allegiance”), and several orchid plants as seen in her Enterprise-D quarters in “Cause and Effect”.
• Just before Beverly sits up in that opening sequence, a clear bowl of blue liquid on her bedside table gets a close-up; this is likely a reference to the similar bowl of blue liquid Crusher kept next to her bed in “Cause and Effect.”

• For some reason, Crusher is listening to Captain Picard’s official logs recorded during “The Best of Both Worlds” on a 2360s-era Starfleet monitor — likely, as Riker explains later, because of the ‘Hellbird’ virus which affected the Enterprise-D during that time.
• Actress Amy Earhart voices the Eleos computer; Earhart just happens to be married to Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas.
• Eleos is the god of mercy, clemency, compassion, and pity in Greek mythology.
• As Picard is packing up the chateau, we see several personal artifacts seen in the previous two seasons, including his Ressikan flute (from “The Inner Light”), his Kurlan Naiskos (from “The Chase”), a Bajoran award, a gold-plated Enterprise-D, and of course, his Enterprise-D painting which once hung in his ready room aboard that ship.
• Geordi La Forge is said to be “running the [Starfleet] museum.”
• When decoding Beverly’s message, Picard uses Starfleet authorization code Picard-4-7-Alpha-Tango, first recited in Star Trek: First Contact.
• Guinan’s bar is selling Starfleet merchandise — starship models produced in the 21st century by the now-defunct Eaglemoss — with loads of Enterprise-D surplus stock. (“No one wants the fat ones!”)

• Riker reveals that while Picard was serving the Borg as Locutus during “The Best of Both Worlds,” a computer virus nicknamed ‘Hellbird’ spread through the Enterprise-D navigational system, adding a 3 to every digit in the spatial coordinate database.
• The upcoming Frontier Day event joins a pantheon of Star Trek holidays like First Contact Day, Captain Picard Day, the Bajoran Gratitude Festival, the Talaxian celebration Prixin, and the Vulcan Kal Rekk day of atonement. An “Empire Union Day” is also seen on screen during Raffi’s research, the first reference to a founding day in Klingon history.
• According to the Instagram Star Trek Logs, Frontier Day will feature the final flight of the soon-to-be-decommissioned USS Enterprise-F, previously seen only in the Star Trek Online game.
• The Titan-A was designed by modelmaker Bill Krause.
• Like the Stargazer last season, the brief view of the Titan‘s shuttlebay is a reused digital background originally built to represent the USS Discovery cargo bay set.
• The Titan bridge started as the Stargazer bridge in Season 2; production designer Dave Blass credits the Starfleet ‘bridge module’ implementation as a way to accommodate the same bridge design in multiple starships.
• According to the Instagram Star Trek Logs, the Titan-A did originally begin life as Will Riker’s Luna-class Titan, though it was heavily overhauled and deconstructed down to its spaceframe before being resurrected as the new Neo-Constitution-class design.

• The Starfleet dishes used in the Titan captain’s dining room was produced by Star Trek Unlimited, and is available for purchase at their website.
• The protein on Captain Shaw’s plate is a bright greenish-blue color, likely a nod to the similarly-colored food in the Star Trek VI Klingon dinner scene.
• Picard makes a reference to station Deep Space 4, first mentioned in “The Chase” — but the station is now closed down.
• The “utterly humiliating” scene featuring Picard and Riker sharing a bunkbed on the Titan-A (courtesy of Captain Shaw) was reminiscent of the spartan quarters given to the captain and Data on board a Klingon Bird-of-Prey in “Unification.”
• Captain Janeway gets a shoutout from Seven, who credits both her and Picard in convincing her to join Starfleet following the events of Picard Season 2.
• M’Talas Prime is, of course, a reference to show runner Terry Matalas, but the planet was first referenced in dialogue in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Dawn,” where Trip mentioned seeing the planet’s ringed moons.
• Raffi sends her message to Starfleet Intelligence (and asks for more money) using an old-style flip-open communicator.

• Raffi Musiker’s birthdate is April 9, 2353. This is the same year in which Jack Crusher dies, Will Riker and Geordi La Forge enter Starfleet Academy, and Nog is born on Ferenginar.
• According to her Starfleet service record, Raffi was awarded the Starfleet Medal of Honor in 2399, after her once-discredited ‘consipiracy theories’ about a Romulan involvement in  the destruction of Mars were proven correct at the end of Season 1.
• Raffi’s investigation into stolen Daystrom Institute technology is codenamed “Operation Daybreak” on her monitors.
• Raffi’s search for ‘upcoming big events’ details the upcoming decommissioning of the Enterprise-F, the Rachel Garrett statue, concept artwork for the USS Stargazer by John Eaves, and an image of the Star Trek Online USS Pathfinder design which seems to have a label which appears to read “Voyager-B.”
• The reference to captain Rachel Garrett of the Enterprise-C marks the first time she has been mentioned in Star Trek in any capacity since being featured in “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”
• The new graphic-intensive end credits sequence features two familiar musical cues from Star Trek: First Contact: the emotional main title theme, and the rousing movie-era Next Generation theme, both by composer Jerry Goldsmith.
• The “For Annie” dedication at the end of this episode refers to the recently-passed Annie Wersching, who played the Borg Queen in Picard Season 2.

The much-anticipated return of Star Trek: Picard absolutely does the trick in setting up a season of adventures and reunions — action, heart, humor and reflection flood this script by Terry Matalas, which feels like the beginning of classic Trek romp made for the big screen… and it only gets better from here.

Jim Moorhouse is the creator of TrekRanks.com and the TrekRanks Podcast.
He can be found living and breathing Trek every day on Twitter as @EnterpriseExtra.