It would be easy to write 2,000 words on just the final 15 minutes of “Seventeen Seconds,” an episode of Star Trek: Picard absolutely packed with intense scenes and dense plotting. The episode moves from one connective thread to the next and the next with massive reveals of character, heart, and storytelling along the way. It’s 56 minutes of jam-packed Star Trek that absolutely flies by, and it is the high point of the season thus far, culminating in one of the great reveals of a villain ever seen on Star Trek.
 
Against all odds, showrunner Terry Matalas has connected this season in unforeseen ways to the 90s era of Star Trek, with the ultimate link in this great narrative being the revelation that the season’s big bad are… the Changelings! It’s a surprise that no one saw coming, even with so many breadcrumbs laid out for us along the way. (As early as the season premiere, Jack Crusher described the foe hunting he and his mother as having “different faces” each time they were confronted, though many fans speculated this related to the “Conspiracy” parasites.)
 

The reveal of the Changelings was achieved so subtly in its execution that when you see it happen, it takes a minute to process what has occurred. In a fistfight between Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) and Ensign Foster (Chad Lindberg), the Titan crewman’s face briefly shimmers distortedly in a way that would likely only be familiar to a long-time fan of Star Trek. Foster, of course, has been seen side-glancing his way through the first few episodes of the season, while also apparently sabotaging the Titan so it could be tracked by Captain Vadic (Amanda Plummer) and the Shrike.

The slight revelation of the Titan crewman’s face does not come with a proclamation of “Changelings!” by anyone in the room  — we’ll leave that to Worf later — and is so brief and sly, it takes a moment to even understand what is happening. The reveal leaves the viewer alone in their thoughts for a minute with, “Wait, was that?!? I think that was … Holy crap! That was a Changeling?!?” It isn’t until a minute later when Jack meets up with Seven that they are able to warn the ship that there’s a Changeling on board… and the full scope of this twist is finally beginning to be understood.

It’s a fantastic moment, buoyed a few minutes later when we see Worf (Michael Dorn) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) interrogate a human named Titus Rikka (Thomas Dekker) who turns out to be very much not a human, but a Changeling that was involved in the theft of the “world-ending portal tech” seen throughout this season. It turns out that theft from the Daystrom Station was a distraction from something else that was stolen — told you the plotting was dense!

When Worf, who faced off directly against the Founders in his time on Deep Space 9, knowingly announces, “How long have you been away from the Great Link?” and the Changeling spits out that the worlds of humans and solids are on the verge of destruction, we finally realize that this season is actually about to give us Next Gen vs. the Changelings – and who would have ever thought that would be a thing? Amazing.

The set-up for this rogue group of Changelings is pitch perfect: a terrorist faction, apparently being led by Vadic, broke away from the Great Link when they were unwilling to accept defeat in the Dominion War. Worf was contacted by “a close friend…a man of honor” — Odo, of course, in a nice nod to the late René Auberjonois — who informed him about this schism in the Great Link, but Starfleet never acknowledged their existence for fear of reigniting the Dominion War. With the pieces now a little more firmly in place, Worf and Raffi partner up to head off to Daystrom Station to try and figure out what else was stolen.

Despite the exciting news that the Changelings have returned, ultimately this episode should probably be remembered for another ubiquitous thread running throughout the history of Star Trek: the incredible contributions of Jonathan Frakes. It is not an exaggeration to say this might be Frakes’ crowning achievement in the Trek universe, where he not only takes command of the Titan as William Riker, while going head-to-head on-screen with his friend and mentor Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) — but he also directs the episode in real life, deftly weaving together a myriad of one-on-one character scenes into a seamless tapestry. It’s a spectacular piece of work.

From a flashback scene with Picard and Riker (toasting the birth of Riker’s since-passed son, Thaddeus) the episode jumps to a short, but important, scene between Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut), then to Picard and Beverly (Gates McFadden) , then to Riker and Jack, then back to Picard and Riker, and then to Seven and Jack, and then Raffi and Worf… it’s a complicated episode to say the least.

Of course, the biggest of those scenes is the showdown between Picard and Beverly, where the former Starfleet doctor basically has to defend her decision for keeping Jean-Luc out of the life of her son for the past 20 years. Ultimately, for Beverly it came down to Picard’s status — both chosen and bequeathed — as a galaxy-saving hero who embraced the role.

“When the galaxy comes calling for you,” says Beverly, “you are not put upon by it. You love it. Don’t tell me you would have walked away.” And she’s definitely not wrong about that, as we saw Jean-Luc doing exactly that at the start of the season, leaving Laris behind to come to the aid of Beverly, ironically.

Beverly tells him that she lost her parents, her husband and then Wesley “to the same stars that own you. I thought I could protect mine. I didn’t know if I could protect yours.” Quite rightly, Jean-Luc is unaccepting that she never gave him a chance, though, and is particularly upset that she used him confiding in her about his own fears of parenthood and the challenges he faced with his own father to cut him out of the biggest decision of his life.

In a great reference to the narrative thread of Picard Season 2, he is oddly comforted knowing now that he would have never been the same kind of man as his father — a gift from Q — but is affected by the fact that he could have perhaps learned that 20 years prior.

As for Frakes, his showdown with Picard is an all-timer, and honestly probably something we never thought we’d see in Star Trek. With Riker being given control of the Titan by an incapacitated Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick), the pair plot a quick escape from the Shrike that results in a nice show of camaraderie with Picard joking to his friend, “I think it might be time for you to call me Number One.”

Those good feelings do not last though, and by the end of the episode, the two are legitimately pissed at each other, with Riker eventually telling his friend, “Remove yourself from the bridge. You just killed us all.”

Throughout the conflict, Picard had been advocating for an aggressive engagement with the Shrike, especially after getting an upper hand strategically after exposing the Changeling infiltrator. But Riker was having none of it and wanted to position the ship for an escape and keep Shaw’s crew safe.

Their conflict comes to a head as part of a visual effects extravaganza with Vadic twice using the experimental portal tech to first relocate the Titan into the Shrike’s line of fire and then to deposit the Titan’s own photon torpedoes onto their stern to knock the ship out of commission. In short, they are thoroughly getting their ass kicked — and Riker blames Picard for convincing him to go on the offensive.

The work from Jason Zimmerman’s visual effects team is a feast for the eyes in these scenes inside the nebula, especially when the dimensional folding of the portal weapon is being showcased. Of course, during the action on the bridge, the Titan’s impressive Vulcan science officer Lt. T’Veen (Stephanie Czajkowski) relays her theory that they are not actually in a nebula, but an unknown anomaly with both electrical and biological signatures. Going deeper into the “nebula” is not a “logical” option, but ultimately that is the only choice for the Titan, which the Shrike is more than happy to allow, pushing them deeper toward the gravity well in its quest to get their hands on Jack Crusher.

Finally, at the emotional heart of this jam-packed episode, is the title, “Seventeen Seconds,” which is powerfully represented as the time two new fathers (first Riker, and then Picard) have to contemplate their fears and life choices as they traverse a turbolift to hopefully aid their ailing sons.

For Riker, the trip came years before as Thaddeus was being born on the Titan and things weren’t going well. And for Picard it comes near the end of this episode as Riker cajoles him to get to sickbay after Jack is badly injured by the Changeling. Riker has been pushing Picard to connect with Jack at all costs and before it was too late, but Riker’s action are based on the son he lost and the decisions he maybe wishes he could have made then to save him. For Picard, he is now looking at Jack and the life he has missed as a big “What If?” situation and is aggressively trying to save him, to make up for the lost time that Riker knows he can never get back.

It was earlier in the episode, prior to the loss of his son, when Riker told Picard, as Thad’s life hung in the balance, that “You’d burn the world to save them.” And now that is pretty much exactly what Picard is trying to do, knowing Vadic is basically not going to stop until she gets to Jack Crusher.

The theme of family and loss and the choices we make bristle with emotion and gravitas throughout almost every scene of the episode (as it has the entire season), and it is represented here quite poignantly in the thoughts of two fathers across 17 seconds.

If all that wasn’t enough, the episode also sets up two exciting threads for future episodes. First that there is now a Changeling loose on the Titan that needs to be identified, and second a new mystery involving those cryptic red flashes seen by Jack after being attacked by the Changeling as he was fighting for his life.

It’s incredible that we are only three episodes into this phenomenal season.

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.

There are lots to choose from this week, including the fantastic delivery of the line, “Anybody else want to throw some weird shit at me?” And the reverse Stashwick Moment when Picard acknowledges that he owes the “ship’s captain an apology,” definitively justifying Shaw’s actions from the get-go.

But this week’s moment is again highlighting Shaw’s decisiveness in quickly transferring command to Riker when he was hurt and incapacitated. No ego here. No trying to skirt the issue and come-up with a workaround. Shaw knew he was hurt and didn’t hesitate for a second before relinquishing command and telling Riker, “You got us into this. You are going to get us out.”

In one additional Moment, Shaw is once again ahead of the game when he comes face-to-face with Jack, the man most responsible for the condition his ship is in, and forces out a question while receiving major medical attention: “How does she keep finding us?!” The moment spurs an idea in Jack who then uncovers the sabotage on the ship’s warp coils.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• This is now Michael Dorn’s 276^th episode as Worf, extending his record appearance tally in Star Trek.
• This is the 28^th directorial credit for Jonathan Frakes (which includes his two Trek films), and the third writing credit on Star Trek: Picard for both Jane Maggs and Cindy Appel.
• Shoutout to the scenes with Worf and Raffaela (her full name, by which he always refers to her – a nice touch), which bring a welcome twist. Just when you think the two might be butting heads (a trope we’ve seen way too often, not just in Trek, but literally everywhere, in this type of relationship), Worf flips the script and tells her, “You have the heart of a warrior, and the instincts.” He proceeds to tell her that together they will track down the person who paid the Ferengi (Worf still won’t use the name of any Ferengi – another nice touch), find out the next phase of their plan, and stop them. To which Raffi, after a very long beat, can only respond with – “Cool.” You love to see it.
• When Raffi wakes up, she finds Worf listening to Berlioz’ “Les Troyens,” the same opera Picard listens to in his ready room at the beginning of Star Trek: First Contact.
• Worf throws a Klingon D’k tagh dagger at Raffi when she approaches him aboard La Sirena.

• The Klingon introduces himself as “Worf, son of Mogh, House of Martok; son of Sergei, House of Rozhenko; bane to the Duras family; slayer of Gowron.” He might as well give Raffi a copy of his resume!
• Thomas Dekker appears as Titus Rikka, his third role in the Star Trek universe, having previously appeared as a child actor in Star Trek: Generations and in two episodes of Voyager (“Learning Curve” and “Persistence of Vision”). Dekker is best known for his genre roles in Heroes and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
• Seven of Nine keeps a chrome model of the USS Voyager on display in her quarters.
• As Beverly recalls Picard’s brushes with death over the years, she references Reman assassins who went after him in the Donatra sector — likely named for the Romulan commander seen in Star Trek: Nemesis.
• After the Rikka shapeshifter reverts to its gelatinous form, Worf fires a ‘dolphin’ phaser at it, the same style introduced in Star Trek: Nemesis.

• For the first time we can remember on a Starfleet ship, a rear window is part of the bridge configuration on the Titan, thanks to the open doors to the briefing room. For much of the action in this episode, the visual effects team impressively showcase the nebula in a corridor at the back of the bridge level where Shaw actually positions crew to “look out the goddamn back window” when their sensors are down to help track the Shrike.
• Shoutout to Casperia Prime, where, uh, apparently Jack was conceived. The vacation planet has been mentioned a couple of times on DS9 (“Change of Heart” and “Inquisition”), but has yet to be seen.
• The writers figuratively have Beverly “wave a light over” Jack’s English accent, which is explained away as having stuck from his time schooling in London.
• Verterium, the source element being used by Vadic to secretly track the Titan in the nebula, was previously referenced in Voyager’s “Investigations” as an element used in the construction of warp coils. The verterium link is discovered by Seven and Jack.
• Marina Sirtis appears briefly in reprising her role as Deanna Troi, the first-time we’ve seen the live-action version of the character since the Season 1 episode “Nepenthe.” She has also appeared in one episode of Lower Decks, “No Small Parts.” (Troi will return later in the season.)

In another universe, three visual cliffhangers in three weeks of a ship in distress inside the same nebula might be a point of criticism, but not here.

“Seventeen Seconds,” a celebration of the work of Jonathan Frakes across 35-plus years with the Star Trek franchise, is easily the best episode of the season to date — with the promise of bigger and better things to come.

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.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will continue with “No Win Scenario” on March 9 on Paramount+ the United States and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada.

It will arrive the next day on Paramount+ on February 17 in the UK, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The series is also available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most other international locations.