Star Trek: Picard’s second season continues this week, and we’ve got a new collection of photos from “Watcher” to share with you today!
After landing back in 2024, Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) must find away to track down and free the just-arrested Rios (Santiago Cabrera), while Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Jurati (Alison Pill) race against time to prevent their future from being permanently altered.
Here are five new photos from this week’s episode, as Picard looks to visit the site of Guinan’s 10 Forward Avenue bar (seen in “The Star Gazer”) during the trip to 2024 — and if Saurian Brandy is on the menu, perhaps the bartender will be a familiar face.
STAR TREK: PICARD— Episode 204: 'Watcher'
1 of 5
Picard (Patrick Stewart) visits the 10 Forward Avenue bar... in 2024. (Paramount+)
Picard visits the 10 Forward Avenue bar... in 2024. (Paramount+)
Picard visits the 10 Forward Avenue bar... in 2024. (Paramount+)
Picard explores 2024 Los Angeles. (Paramount+)
Picard explores 2024 Los Angeles. (Paramount+)
Outside the back-alley 10 Forward Avenue location features a BOXING advertisement, an homage to the one seen when Kirk and Spock arrive to the 1930’s in “City on the Edge of Forever.”
Finally, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s a preview clip from “Watcher” released during last week’s episode of The Ready Room, and the official Paramount+ trailer.
WATCHER — With time running out to save the future, Picard takes matters into his own hands and seeks out an old friend for help. Meanwhile, Rios ends up on the wrong side of the law and Jurati makes a deal with the Borg Queen.
Teleplay by Juliana James & Jane Maggs.
Story by Travis Fickett & Juliana James.
Directed by Lea Thompson.
Star Trek: Picard returns March 24 with “Watcher” on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations.
Simon & Schuster took the first steps into the realm of Star Trek audio dramas last month with Star Trek: Picard — No Man’s Land, the audio adventure set between the television series’ first and second seasons.
Starring Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd as their Trek characters, Seven of Nine and Raffi Muskier, the story from Picard co-creator Kirsten Beyer and longtime Trek comics writer Mike Johnson sees the pair on a mission into Romulan territory — while also navigating the start of a romantic relationship.
We had the opportunity to speak to the writers behind this exciting new project, as Beyer and Johnson talk about the origination of the story idea, writing for the real actors who portray Seven and Raffi, and hopes for future Star Trek audio dramas.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
TREKCORE: Why did you choose to focus No Man’s Land on Seven and Raffi specifically?
KIRSTEN BEYER: Well, out of all of Picard’s interesting characters, I wanted to give more time to Seven of Nine in particular. That had to do with my past love affair with Star Trek: Voyager, but also this Picard-era version of Seven who was so different from the character that we knew from the Voyager days.
Then Raffi as well, who is such a deep and complex woman. It felt like, between the Seven/Raffi dynamic and the Fenris Rangers part of everything, it just felt like we had maximum opportunity to dig into some of these things without impacting or worrying too much — at least, initially — about what the impact would be on Picard Season 2.
TREKCORE: I knew as soon as I heard a “Unimatrix Zero” reference that I was listening to a Kirsten Beyer production!
BEYER: Guilty as charged!
TREKCORE: How does writing an audio drama differ from your previous experience of writing for television, novels, and comics?
MIKE JOHNSON: The essential components of it are pretty much the same as when Kirsten and I were writing the comics together, which is that you sit down and you start figuring out the story together.
For me, at least it was familiar going in because I knew and loved working with Kirsten so that was certainly created a level of comfort with the project. Then the more I worked on it, the more you realize you are getting a crash course in writing for audio, where you realize, “Oh, that thing that I usually just do kneejerk flexibly when I’m writing for comics, I can’t do in audio.”
You can’t really write “someone walks across the room” because you just hear a few footsteps, where even if you hear the footsteps, you don’t know where they’re going. And you don’t want the character saying, “I am now crossing the room!”
It’s just getting the hang of how to convey things just through sound, which was so cool. That was just the best part about it was learning that vocabulary and what we could do and figuring out how music and sound effects can work. Yes, so the essential writing process wasn’t that different, but obviously, the tools in our toolbox were totally different.
BEYER: I think we were thinking about that from the beginning, even as we were starting to break the story. We would come up with ideas and then go, “Wait, how can we do that just with sound, and not visually?”
We knew we wanted to have cool action set pieces in there, but we really had to dig in to figure out how that gets conveyed clearly to the listener when you can’t see what’s going on and you can’t have your dialogue just be completely expository.
TREKCORE: Did you sample a few audio dramas to get a sense of the medium?
JOHNSON: I listened to a few of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas.
BEYER: Me too! Frankly, I think I was a little daunted because those didn’t seem to be nearly as lengthy as this was planned to be. Simon & Schuster said from the beginning that they wanted a 90-minute production — or longer — so we also had to factor that in as well.
TREKCORE: What’s is the process like of then recruiting the actors to participate in the audio drama, since getting Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd to sign on seems like a pretty critical requirement?
BEYER: We did the outline so that Simon & Schuster was convinced that we had a story that they were excited about telling, and then they approach the actors before we wrote the script. I suppose if the actors had not been interested, it might have all died there, but lucky for us, they were.
JOHNSON: They knew that Kirsten was going to be writing it with me, which created a level of trust as well. I think if it was just me alone or someone they didn’t know, it would’ve been maybe more of an ask to get Jeri and Michelle to say yes, but I know how much they trust and love Kirsten.
It felt very much like part of the production of the show. We were filling in a gap between the two seasons with a necessary story.
TREKCORE: As the audio drama is coming together, how much of the actors’ performances is guided by you as the writers — and how much of that comes organically through the recording process?
BEYER: There is a director who worked with the actors during the recording sessions. We were there for most of those, especially earliest and the longest ones. We were there primarily for clarification purposes. Christina Zarafonitis, our director, was brilliant and also incredibly generous. It was a true collaboration.
She would often check-in to see if what we were hearing was what we thought we were going to hear. For the most part, she really did lead the actors through to find both the clarity and the performances that were going to make sense to her.
I don’t think we provided more in terms of directions or clarifications on the page than there would be in any given screenplay or teleplay. Every now and again, you’re shaping a thing in a certain way and you want to make sure you’re being exactly clear about it, but with these two actors, they have such a rich history with these characters that you’re already hoping to meet them where they are — and where you know them to be — so that’s not super necessary.
JOHNSON: I think we had a pretty solid handle on the plot at that point. We really dove into it to make sure it was as airtight as possible. The coolest thing about the process is watching the actors, they just turn it on. It’s incredible. It’s star power and they were such pros about going through the script and taking a few hours to put together a performance.
It was just incredible to watch — or to listen to, I should say. They are the heart and soul of the project and they just brought it in the process.
TREKCORE: No Man’s Land also features the voice talents of Lower Decks star Fred Tatasciore. What did you think when you found out that he was also going to be part of this audio drama?
BEYER: Well, I don’t want to take anything away from the hiring of Fred, because he is a wonderful and very in-demand voiceover actor, but Fred and I were in the same class of 13 people at UCLA getting our master’s in acting like 20-something years ago.
Freddy was in my wedding; Freddy is my daughter’s godfather. Freddy is somebody who I know and love very, very dearly and who I have always been in awe of as a performer. When this came along, it was literally the first thing that I had ever written where I was like, “Oh, oh, oh God. Oh, Freddy!”
I was delighted that he was able to join us on this, but he was not a stranger to me.
TREKCORE: And who better to voice a duplicitous Romulan warlord?!
BEYER: We were very conscious as well of wanting him to play against the type. As we were working with him, we were like, “Freddy, just give us you.” There is so much about him that is so deep and rich and complex, and he didn’t really need to color it too much with all of the things you do with stock villains or monsters, which he does a lot of.
TREKCORE: Mike, what was experience like for you to not just to tell a great story about these characters, but then be able to listen to the actors themselves perform it in a Star Trek production?
JOHNSON: It’s fantastic. A dream come true! I’m so lucky to have Kirsten as a mentor and a partner in this. We talked about how when she came to comics, I taught her the ropes on how to a format a comic script and how comics flow and all that.
I’d written a couple of episodes of Transformers ten years ago, but otherwise, this was my first whack at writing Star Trek for performers. It was great to have Kirsten there to show me the nuances of a particular line or something where you’re really thinking about how would the person say this, as opposed to in comics, you’re really writing for the reader and the reading eye and the reading mind, as opposed to writing for someone to you perform it.
Just figuring out that difference was great and getting a comfort level with it. It’s fantastic. It’s great.
TREKCORE: Kirsten, how much of the Seven-Raffi relationship story concept was meant to bridge the storytelling gap between Picard’s first and second seasons?
BEYER: We wanted to go super deep into the dynamics of this relationship, to take both characters from the end of Season 1 — where it was almost just the beginning of an idea of a thing– to what we were going to see in Season 2.
Thankfully, the writing for Season 2 was being completed while we were writing this, and because I was in the writers’ room I was able to keep modulating things because the arc of that relationship is a very, very fine thing. We needed to track that through a story that keeps it moving forward, and have it land in the exact right place.
That was the bulk of our effort in terms of this story. It was all going to live or die based on that relationship, and the dynamics between them; that is what has to sustain a listener’s attention. It was awfully subtle at times.
TREKCORE: Now we’ve got No Man’s Land, hopefully, it does well enough that Simon & Schuster’s will be interested in more….
BEYER: Let’s do 20 of them!
TREKCORE: Yes, right! Now you’ve had this experience, what do you think the potential for this medium is?
JOHNSON: I think the future is bright. I think No Man’s Land is proof of concept from the reception that we’ve gotten. Obviously, it comes down to how successful the sales numbers are, but I think the warm reception we’ve received shows that there’s absolutely room for them.
I think there’s been a breaking down of the walls between different media. This was something that Alex Kurtzman spoke about with Kristen and me a few years ago — on the comic side — how to break down the walls, so that a film wouldn’t be more important than a TV series, and TV wouldn’t be more important than the print world.
Seeing Michelle and Jeri do this audiobook shows that the actors want to be able to tell stories in all kinds of different media. They’re not pressuring us about like, “Oh, we have to be on film or something.” I think companies should realize that audiences will consume stories across all kinds of media.
Look at the explosion of audiobooks and podcasting. I think there’s something very deep inside us that responds to hearing stories, that goes back to the oral tradition. We told stories and continued stories and passed them down long before we wrote them. We passed them down through the oral tradition.
I think this is all a long-winded way of saying, I hope we do a lot more. I think there’s room for them. There are a lot of great Star Trek writers out there who I think would be great for this.
BEYER: I also think that these various formats each activate different parts of the audience’s brain in a really good way. As exciting as the various series in films are, there’s always going to be a story in a universe this large, that they simply don’t have time to tell, and it’s story for which there is definitely an audience.
That’s why we have so many books and comics. Now with the audio dramas, I think that there’s absolutely no limit to what we can do in all of these various formats. It’s just a matter of the time and the resources and having folks who are committed to going deep into these things.
Look, I’ve been doing tie-ins for 20 years now, and at no point in that process has anybody ever been thinking, “Let’s just hurry up and get it out there.” All of the novelists that I have worked with, certainly with Mike, there is such a deep respect for our audiences and such a desire to connect with them with really, really excellent stories that we’re just busting our asses always whatever story we’re telling — and whatever form we’re telling it in — to give our audiences the best experience possible.
TREKCORE: If you could go back in time and write an audio drama starring a pair from the Original Series cast — to be recorded and released while TOS was in production — what’s your pitch?
BEYER: Wow! What’s tricky about that question is that by its nature, TOS is so episodic. As we look back at three years of the show, and from the vantage point of beyond the movies, we can see evolution of character — but they weren’t planning arcs and relationships.
For a story like this, you have to have that character movement in order for it to make sense, to try to do. What I would be looking for are simply character dynamics that we didn’t get to see a whole lot of, like Spock and Chapel, or Spock and Uhura, or even Kirk and Uhura.
JOHNSON: I would do Bones and anybody! I just love Bones so much that if I can get DeForest Kelley, that would be grand. Then like a Sulu-Chekov two-hander, I think would be really fun. Following them a day in the life together on the bridge and going to work and maybe something happens to the ship and they have to team up and save the day. That’d be fun.
TREKCORE: I will keep my fingers firmly crossed that we get more audio dramas to join No Man’s Land and Spock vs. Q on my shelf!
JOHNSON: I want to change my answer. I want to do Spock Vs Q, Part III!
An eBook edition is planned, TrekCore has learned, but at this time neither a release date nor any other details have been announced. We’ll bring you more information when available.
The team at Star Trek Wines have spent the last three years releasing tie-in bottles connected to the final frontier — from their original Chateau Picard, to Klingon Bloodwine and Cardassian Kanar — and as they head into year four of production, they’re letting fans help guide their next release.
One of many Star Trek Wines products in development is a take on the wine of Risa, the vacation world our Starfleet heroes have visited multiple times over the decades — and home to Ruon Tarka in this most recent season of Star Trek: Discovery.
Archer examines a bottle of Risa’s wine in “Two Days and Two Nights.”Risian wine on Raritan IV and in Guinan’s Los Angeles bar (“The Star Gazer”).
When the crew of Captain Archer took shore leave there in 2151 (“Two Days and Two Nights”), Risian wine was waiting for him in the suite at his resort — and the triangular bottle returned in a modernized form 250 years later in Star Trek: Picard, seen at both Soji’s summit with the Deltans of Raritan IV, and in Guinan’s new bar in Los Angeles (“The Star Gazer”)
With two versions of this wine now part of the Star Trek canon, the team at Star Trek Wines has launched a fan poll to help guide them on which edition of Risa’s export they should produce for sale — the classic version introduced in Enterprise, or the 25th century version introduced in Picard.
(They may even do both if there is strong enough interest!)
Even if you’re not a wine drinker, the Star Trek Wines team is looking for as much fan feedback as possible to guide their trip to Risa — so head over to the poll at the Star Trek Wines website to vote for which version of the Risian Wine bottle is most appealing to you!
Star Trek: Discovery closes out its fourth season with a largely-satisfying finale that rounds out the Species 10-C story, and brings another year of the show to a tidy conclusion.
“Coming Home” does a lot to make up for the imperfections of the back half of Season 4, though even a full 60-minute runtime is not quite enough to cover everything that was held back for this final episode. After 13 episodes — with several kind of lifeless entries in the back half of the year — it’s a shame that so many of the really interesting elements of this story were held for the last chapter.
The truly alien Species 10-C.
To make it a “big” finale, the show chose to try and balance way too many story points: stopping Tarka’s mission, making real contact with Species 10-C and convincing them to turn off the DMA, the DMA’s impact on Earth (and Starfleet’s efforts to evacuate the planet), Book coming to terms with the destruction of Kwejian, General Ndoye’s betrayal of Discovery’s efforts, Burnham’s crumbling relationship with Book, Burnham’s evolving dynamic with President Rillak, and Saru’s attraction to President T’Rina.
It’s actually more successful than you might think in juggling all those plot lines — in a gripping hour that largely pays off a lot of these stories in a satisfying way — but I can’t help but feel like the decision to hold so much for the finale ultimately detracted from the overall season, and did not give everything quite the breathing room it could have had to really pop.
There are a couple of convenient leaps to accelerate the story that may not have been necessary if the DMA story had been doled out in a more evenly-balanced manner, but overall, the season ended stronger than I hoped (given my frustrations with episodes like “The Galactic Barrier.”)
Tarka (Shawn Doyle) prepares to attempt his long-awaited crossing.
The episode picks up outside the galaxy with Tarka (Shawn Doyle) in control of Book’s ship, preparing to destroy the DMA by taking control of its power source. I was pleased that Tarka’s role within the episode was resolved quickly, even though — after how obstinate and inflexible he had been in previous episodes — it felt like the speed of his turn towards abandoning his plan was a little abrupt.
But I am okay with that; the character had largely outlived his usefulness, despite a good performance — and I enjoyed the decision to shroud his ultimate fate in the same mystery as his partner Oros. That was a poetic choice that I appreciated.
As for Book (David Ajala) seemingly dying after his transporter beam failed to deliver him back to Discovery’s bridge… well, a nice effort by the writers, but four years of this series have conditioned us to expect character departures to come with a much greater focus.
Watching the destruction of Books’ ship — and the collapse of his transporter beam.
So while there was a a solid reactionary performance from Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) — who gets understandably emotional for a moment, before pulling herself back into command mode — it was hard to see how that would be the end for ol’ Cleveland Booker.
After stopping Tarka, the main meat of the episode was in Discovery’s continued attempts to start a dialogue with Species 10-C. After establishing the enormous aliens that humanoid species don’t exist in a hive mind the way they do, Burnham and crew set about working to convince them to back down.
The scenes with direct dialogue between Species 10-C and the Discovery delegation are tense, as both parties begin to explain their perspectives on the universe to one another, but this is the part of the story that really could have used a larger focus.
Good thing Discovery has an auto-pilot system, with the whole bridge crew off the ship.
It’s wonderful to see the climax of the series revolve not around some kind of fight, but between two parties who are completely alien to one another learning to communicate and share their needs. But if I have one criticism of the sequence, it’s that the hard-to-overcome communication barriers established last week get ratcheted down as the need to speed up the plot ratchets up.
Last week, the two parties were struggling to communicate basic mathematical concepts and how they perceive and process the universe, by the time they get into the meat of the discussion in “Coming Home,” the Federation group is trading words and concepts like love without much difficulty — punctuated by lengthy, easily-translated speeches from the rematerialized Book, Burnham, and Rillak (Chelah Horsdal).
Beyond that, though, it’s been really gratifying to see Discovery chose to explore something truly alien this season. Species 10-C was an entirely new concept for Star Trek, as promised by Michelle Paradise, and Star Trek is better off for it. I hope all the shows will continue to thoughtfully balance revisiting familiar Star Trek species, locales, and ideas with forging new ground in this manner.
Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Vance (Oded Fehr) share a drink.
It was also nice to see Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) again, returning for the first time since her departure from Discovery back in “All is Possible.” Still partnered with a group of Starfleet cadets (including the Tellarite and Orion from “All is Possible”) as part of her new assignment, Tilly’s scenes with Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) were a standout, as the two officers coordinate Starfleet’s limited evacuation of Earth.
The special effects work in this episode was top notch — especially the Starfleet ships coming to lead Earth’s evacuation efforts, led by Starfleet Command’s base warping into orbit (!). While it seems likely Vance will continue as a regular guest star next year, there’s still no word how often we’ll see Tilly in Season 5, but producer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi said in a new interview Tilly will be back in some capacity.
Once the 10-C call off the DMA and graciously send Discovery back to Earth via wormhole, we find that Book’s sentence for taking Tarka’s side and chasing after the 10-C isn’t prison, but what is essentially a “community service” assignment: helping other people displaced from their homes following encounters with the DMA.
Book (David Ajala) and Grudge sail off to their new (mandated) assignment.
It’s good to see he wasn’t let off scot-free, even though it may seem like a light “punishment” compared to incarceration; Rillak makes clear that she wants true justice for the situation, and with Reno’s reporting that Tarka was making all the bad decisions in this last part of the story, an assignment to a Starfleet-supervised relief-worked position seems pretty fair.
It appears clear that David Ajala won’t be a Star Trek: Discovery regular next season — revealing the truth behind Cleveland Booker’s name last week was a pretty big hint that his run on the show was nearing an end — but as Burnham says in her closing monologue, we’ll see him again, someday.
HAIL TO THE CHIEF
After Federation forces came to its rescue during the DMA disaster, “Coming Home” concludes with United Earth choosing to come back into the fold — and as the President of Earth disembarks from a shuttlecraft, Discovery brings us the franchise’s first modern-era major cameo — like the several well-known, real-world faces who have made their way into the franchise in eras past.
When that shuttle door opens, who do we see? No, it’s not that President of Earth, but former Georgia Senate Minority Leader, two-time candidate for the Governor of Georgia (including her current campaign), groundbreaking voting-rights champion, progressive hero — and most importantly, a true, longtime Star Trek fan: Stacey Abrams.
Of all the current series, Discovery has always been the one that was the most willing to engage directly with modern politics. The casting of Stacey Abrams as the president of a United Earth — especially as the planet emerges from a period of aggressive isolationism to rejoin the galactic community — certainly sends a strong signal about Discovery’s political point of view.
It happens to be a point of view that I support, so I’m fine with it, but I am sure there will be A WHOLE LOT of opinions about it (both in favor and against). Personally, it’s always a thrill for me to see any longtime Star Trek fan realize their dream of actually getting to be part ofStar Trek, and from that standpoint alone it, must have been the coolest experience imaginable for her. I’m certainly jealous!
Captain Burnham meets with the President of United Earth (Stacey Abrams).
Sonequa-Martin Green and Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise shared some thoughts on Abrams’ appearance with Deadline today; Paradise noted that they “knew that she was a fan of the show and of Trek in general, and for us, there was no one better to be that President.”
I think that’s where we should all choose to focus our energy — in congratulating a fan for being able to touch some small part of the franchise in a real way, while hopefully not getting into too much of a scuffle over Is This What Star Trek Has Become?! along the way.
(Comments section below, I’m looking at you!)
OTHER OBSERVATIONS
T’Rina (Tara Rosling) and Saru (Doug Jones)? All in.
After learning that Species 10-C exist in a hive-mind state, President Rillak asks T’Rina if they are like the Borg — the first reference to the cybernetic species in Discovery.
Will the Voyager-J ever get a new captain?
Burnham and Book discuss a chilly night on Tiburon, the home of the big-eared Dr. Sevrin from “The Way to Eden.”
Book’s ship is destroyed, and with it, the first new spore drive prototype. While Stamets (Anthony Rapp) notes that Discovery‘s burned out drive can apparently be repaired, one must wonder how far back the loss of the prototype — and of Tarka with it — will set back the Federation’s efforts on replicating the technology.
Missing from the already-stuffed finale are updates on how Gray (Ian Alexander) is doing back on Trill, and on what kind of secret project Kovich (David Cronenberg) is managing at Starfleet Headquarters; so far we don’t yet know if the two will return next season.
The Discovery crew finally gets a much-needed vacation.
Discovery wraps up its fourth season with one final captain’s log from Burnham, which mirrors and builds upon her similar log entry from the end of Season 3. Both are similar in that they discuss how the resolution of the season’s arc has revitalized the Federation, driven everyone closer together, and set sights for a more hopeful future.
Where last year’s ending felt like the start of the renewal process, though, this time it feels like the Federation has finally come full circle as Earth pledges its intention to rejoin the alliance, and the Discovery story can now truly move forward once more.
While the Discovery crew heads off to much-needed vacations — aside from the slight time-jump after the Season 3 finale, they haven’t really had a day off since the series began! —Star Trek: Discovery ends its year with a pretty blank canvas for where to go from here.
I hope that Season 5 brings us a new narrative structure, interesting new concepts, and more of a chance for Star Trek: Discovery’s characters to shine through. See you soon, Discovery!
Star Trek: Discovery will return for a 10-episode fifth season sometime in 2023; as of this writing no production-start date has been announced.
Any feelings of nostalgia that may have hit you while you watched “Penance” last week are going to be slingshot around the sun when you catch up with this week’s Star Trek: Picard, another fun romp in the series with vibes both familiar and surprising baked into its neuro-processing.
The fish-out-of-water time-travel story is at the core of the gloriously familiar parts of this episode, right down to a spectacular time-jump sequence masterfully directed by Lea Thompson (who obviously knows a thing or two about time travel). And as for those surprising elements? I’ll help you assimilate those in just a minute!
“Assimilation” picks up right where we left off, as Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the La Sirena gang turn the tables on the Confederation team holding the crew at gunpoint, all while orchestrating their time jump courtesy of the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching).
With the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) in control, the past is now.
In the space of just a few beats, we get all of the following from Wersching as she makes this Borg Queen her own: a shot of the Queen creepily crawling across the floor with her arms and torso, connecting to La Sirena in classic Borg fashion, an authoritative announcement of her time-travel calculations, a neutralizing takedown of the Confederation fleet with some nifty green torpedoes — and with Rios (Santiago Cabrera) locked out of the ship’s controls, she makes a declaration of “Move backward to go forward… the past is now.”
And if that wasn’t enough, in the middle of all that we also get another flash of Q (John de Lancie), popping in over Picard’s shoulder mid-battle to remind him exactly what this entire dark-reality timeline is all about: the decisions he’s made in the face of fear to live a life among the stars, alone and away from his home.
From the visual effects to the performances to the direction, the entire sequence is phenomenal — and it doesn’t end until the ship has discreetly crashed near the Picard vineyards in LeBarre, France, circa 2024. What little power remains on board the crashed vessel is being syphoned off by the Borg Queen to save herself, something the crew needs to happen so she can point them toward the fissure in time to correct the Confederation timeline (and hopefully get them home).
Raffi (Michelle Hurd) can barely contain her rage after Elnor’s death.
However, Elnor (Evan Evagora) is also in need of that power to stay alive on a biobed after suffering a phaser wound at the end of “Penance.” With only seconds to make a decision, Picard won’t allow the Borg Queen to be terminated, leaving Raffi (Michelle Hurd) devastated as the young Romulan dies in her arms.
It’s a tough, dramatic death – a moment that both fans and Raffi alike will be hoping can be reversed with a repaired timeline, but for now, the trusting, questioning young Qowat Milat warrior is gone. With Raffi spewing venom at Picard’s leadership choices, she decides they are not waiting on the Borg Queen to get back up to speed before beginning her quest to find the “watcher,” who hopefully can save Elnor while resetting the timeline.
It’s here where the fun familiarity begins, as Raffi, Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Rios beam into LA and go equal parts Voyage Home, “Past Tense” and “Future’s End.”
In the Voyage Home column you have the fantastic slingshot effect, a search for a watcher (which in the case of Star Trek IV, we had whales) and a dramatic conclusion with police crashing a medical facility to try and apprehend one of our heroes. In this last element, the “of-the-moment” scenes in a community clinic — operating primarily to supporting undocumented residents — are set up when Rios is injured after a transporter beam drops him thirty feet onto bare concrete.
Rios (Santiago Cabrera) makes a clinical connection with Dr. Teresa (Sol Rodriguez).
He ends up in the care of the clinic’s lead physician, Teresa (Sol Rodriguez), and their connection is on full display when she hilariously implores him to tell a heartfelt story about his happiest childhood memory before cutting him off harshly with a crunching reset of the bones in his injured hand. (“Cool story.” Instant chemistry!)
In the end, the facility is raided by U.S. Immigration and the pair are both arrested, setting up a major problem for Rios — who remains injured, with no identification and no comm badge to call for help.
Rios being on his own with no ID goes straight into the “Past Tense” column, echoing Jadzia Dax’s story after being separated from Sisko and Bashir in the classic Deep Space Nine episode. The Sanctuary Districts from 2024 also make an appearance (via a few signs in the background) when Raffi is mugged right after beaming in.
This being Raffi, she immediately gets the better of her attacker and then she and Seven head to an LA landmark (a la “Future’s End”) and make cute with a security guard at the city’s tallest skyscraper to get a cellular photograph — and a lead on finding both Rios and the Watcher.
Raffi and Seven (Jeri Ryan): just a couple of gals looking to capture an image.
The scenes in Los Angles feel fresh and fun (though not funner than security guard Kevin, of course), but are mostly doing the work to set up the story to come. The real surprise in this episode comes back on La Sirena, where Picard and Jurati (Alison Pill) have been taxed with trying to revive the Borq Queen… while also keeping her from taking control.
The acting in the frequent Stewart/Pill team-up scenes has been a high-point throughout the Picard series run, and this one is no different. Pill is again exceptionally strong in portraying the lonely and caustic Jurati as a character trying to relax and fit in, while also processing the information of the world around her with an intelligence that won’t allow her to do so.
After rattling off some superb Borg technobabble, the pair decide that their starting point with the Queen is to access her central core system — where they believe she is still mentally active, but without a way to communicate. Picard would be quickly recognized as Locutus (even in his new body, it seems), so to slow down the threat of assimilation, it falls to Jurati as the only option.
Of course, Picard is against it, knowing that the longer Jurati is inside the Queen, the tougher she will be to control, but Jurati argues that the partial assimilation can be stopped at any time as Picard monitors and speaks to her subconscious (where he will surely learn more than just how much she misses her grade school cat).
Jurati (Alison Pill) plugs into the Borg Queen to repair her systems, as Picard (Patrick Stewart) looks on.
The journey into a character’s subconscious is a classic Star Trek trope used throughout the past 56 years and it is executed to perfection here with Jurati. She wishes Picard was her dad. She uses humor as a deflection. She gets angry, calling Picard a “pretentious prick” who hides his own feelings; she gets sad, revealing deep suicidal thoughts.
As the intensity builds, the Queen’s voice emerges in Agnes, followed closely by Agnes’ voice in the disembodied Queen hanging over them. Back and forth it goes until Picard finally succumbs to the pressure and he moves to disconnect her. But Jurati grabs his hand to stop him, and here Thompson directs the scene to a thrilling climax with Picard exclaiming, “Who’s hand is this?!?” and the Queen and Agnes rotating answers between them (“Mine.” “Mine.” “Mine.” “Mine.” “Mine.” “Mine.”) — as he finally pulls the plug.
Whew. What a moment. Honestly, as good as anything we’ve seen in eight previous appearances from the Borg Queen since making her debut in Star Trek: First Contact more than 25 years ago.
With “small companion” (a Borg dis’!) out of commission temporarily, the Borg Queen has regained her “clarity of vision” and is now trying to negotiate with Locutus. She’ll give up the Watcher’s location for the ship… until Jurati perks up with a confident, “Are you sure about that?”
Jurati surprises and impresses the Borg Queen — not an easy task.
With the most convincing swagger and confidence you will ever see, she utters a line for the ages, delivered with such knowing accomplishment that it would stagger any collective: “Computer, dictate the file-log ‘Shit I Stole from the Borg Queen.’”
And just like that, Jurati has won this round. And as satisfying as that line is for the viewer, the Queen is even more into it, declaring, “What you have done here is more difficult and vastly more dangerous than you realize: you’ve impressed me.”
Watching these two powerhouses continue their war of wits and minds has quickly moved to the top of the wish list in anticipating how the remainder of this season unfolds. This is especially true, given the fact that Jurati has clearly been affected by her connection with the Borg Queen, something that will surely play out in interesting ways in the episodes to come.
With the Queen nullified for now and with the coordinates of the watcher in hand, Picard tries to contact the away team, where his calls to Rios go unanswered in another fun episode-ending mini-cliffhanger.
BUTTERFLY BEATS
In the season’s first bit of timey-wimey mysteriousness, Jurati warns the away team that when one is 400 years in the past, “You have to look out for butterflies,” urging caution against accidentally causing more damage to the timeline.
After falling two stories onto the street, Rios is taken to Clinica Las Mariposas — which translates to “The Butterflies” — where not only does her clinic feature kid-crafted butterflies around the office, but the facility’s logo (a stylized butterfly) actually first appeared among the crates of medical supplies in La Sirena’s cargo hold back in the season premiere.
The logo from Clinica Las Mariposas appears on La Sirena in “The Star Gazer.”Butterflies flutter by Rios at the clinic.
Even the Borg Queen herself is posed like a preserved butterfly when hung in front of La Sirena’s engine core. “A leads to B leads to C leads to A,” once said Captain Braxton; it’s time to start pondering what ‘C’ will be for the La Sirena gang as the season pushes forward.
A new specimen.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS
Seven suggests that Raffi use Dermalinepads to bandage Elnor’s wound, at least temporarily, when no real medical supplies were available to help him.
The Confederation starships that chase La Sirena to the sun are comprised of a Steamrunner-class design and two Nova-class ships; both digital models are CGI work developed by Eaglemoss for the Official Starships Collection model line (spotted by Jörg Hillebrand).
Jurati estimates their year of arrival to past-Earth based upon the pollution content of the atmosphere (like Spock in The Voyage Home) and the status of detectable radioactivity (like Data in First Contact).
La Sirena has physical blast shields which can be lowered over the forward viewports.
More classic starships return, as Steamrunner and Nova-class designs chase down La Sirena.
Elnor’s medallion reads “Now is the Only Moment,” echoing Laris’ phrase from the season premiere, “Seize Today, For We Know Nothing of Tomorrow.”
Raffi suggests the team scan Los Angeles for subspace signals (which shouldn’t exist yet) to find the Watcher, the same thing which led the Voyager crew to find old-man Captain Braxton on Earth in “Future’s End.”
According to Jurati’s warning, Federation citizens of the Star Trek: Picard era have identification implants and vaccination chips embedded in their bodies.
Confederation trooper jackets feature a shoulder patch with a Borg skull.
Comic writers Scott and David Tipton get a nod from the ‘Picard’ production team.
The business located where Rios beams (and falls) to the streets of Los Angeles is called “Tipton Bros. Deli” — established in 1966, of course — which is a nod to Star Trek comics writers Scott and David Tipton (currently overseeing TNG — The Mirror War).
Raffi materializes inside an LA-based Sanctuary District, one of the class-segregated areas first seen in “Past Tense.”
On the building above the Sanctuary District, a large billboard advertising a forthcoming space mission to Europacarries the tagline, “… To Boldly Go!”
Raffi’s mugger reminds her that in the 21st century, people still need money (unlike those from the Federation future).
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold tablets serve as Confederation padds……while Samsung Galaxy Z Flip phones serve as Confederation tricorders.
Last week, 9 to 5 Google identified the Confederation’s padd devices as Samsung Galaxy Z Fold tablets wrapped up in a fancy case, and this week we get a good look at a Confederation tricorder — which is, in reality, the Galaxy Z Flip folding smartphone in its own space-age case.
Coming from a galaxy full of replicated food, Rios marvels at the taste of “real” peanut butter cookies.
Rick & Morty is now part of the Star Trek canon, which means somewhere Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan — who worked on that series for several years — must also exist inside the franchise he’s helping to shape.
The immigration officer who arrests Rios notes that he’s got “no UHC card,” the special type of identification issued by the 2020s-era United States — established in “Past Tense.”
Rios’ badge is left behind, potentially becoming another point of timeline contamination.
Although not quite as riveting as the first two episodes in total, “Assimilation” soars in the unexpected showdown between Jurati and the Borq Queen, and certainly is setting up some amazing stories to be told in that particular relationship.
Star Trek: Picard returns March 24 with “Watcher” on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations.
After a flurry of location-shoot leaks out of Toronto this week, Paramount+ has officially announced that actor Paul Wesley, best known to genre fans for his work as Stevan Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries, will be beaming aboard Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in Season 2… as James T. Kirk.
Little — well, nothing — is known about how Kirk will fit into the Strange New Worlds story, though television production fans in Toronto have spotted the actor on location with SNW lead Christina Chong (La’an Noonien-Sing) both in and out of Starfleet uniforms on the streets of the Canadian city, so it’s possible some kind of time travel element may bring the pair back to a relatively-modern-day Earth — or, some other planet, if the TOS-era Hodgkin’s law of parallel planetary development comes into play.
(Okay, that last bit’s a stretch but who the heck knows!)
We can leave you with this deep-near-canon bit of material gleaned from Stephen Whitfield’s famous The Making of Star Trekbook — which indicated that Kirks’ first command, prior to the USS Enterprise, was “a destroyer class ship,” but beyond that, no on-screen content has placed the man into a captain’s chair before his time aboard the big E.
I am deeply humbled and still a little startled to have been given the honor of playing the inimitable James T Kirk. Ever since I was a kid, I have been awed by the imaginative world Gene Roddenberry created.
Recently, I boarded a flight to LA to discover that the man in the pic.twitter.com/U8GVD4ZemP
empty seat beside me was the one and only William Shatner, having himself just returned from space. I could barely put two words together but ultimately I managed to say hello and we chatted.
I’m not one who usually believes in fate but this was more than a coincidence.
And of
course I had to get a picture.
So thanks Mr. Shatner for the good company. And for seating us together, my thanks to the great bird in the sky. Can’t wait for all of you to see our Captain Kirk on your screens.
Another possibility is that Wesley’s time aboard Strange New Worlds comes at a time between Pike’s departure from the ship and the beginning of the Original Series in “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” or in a storyline set sometime after “Turnabout Intruder.”
Either way, it’ll be until at least 2023 until we learn how Wesley will factor into Strange New Worlds — but keep your sensors locked here at TrekCore for all the latest info as it breaks!
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts on Thursday, May 5 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada. Additional international distribution has not yet been announced.
In addition, stick around to listen to Alex and Caleb’s theories about how Star Trek: Discovery will wrap up Season 4 later this week — what will happen, and how will it end?
WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify— and we’ll be sharing the details of each new episode right here on TrekCore each week if you’re simply just looking to listen in from the web.
Do you have a wish or theory you’d like to share on the show? Tweet to Alex at @WeeklyTrek, or email us with your thoughts about wishes, theories, or anything else about the latest in Star Trek news!
Star Trek: Discovery’s fourth season concludes this week, and we’ve got a new collection of photos from the season finale “Coming Home” to share with you today!
After making contact with the powerful Species 10-C aliens, Tarka (Shawn Doyle) enacted his dangerous plan to stop the DMA once and for all — leaving Discovery, Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), and her crew in peril.
Here are seven new photos from this week’s episode:
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY — Episode 413: 'Coming Home'
1 of 7
Book (David Ajala) looks concerned. (Paramount+)
Book and Reno (Tig Notaro) on his ship. (Paramount+)
Tarka (Shawn Doyle) enacts his plan. (Paramount+)
Discovery's bridge crew hold on tight. (Paramount+)
Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) and Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) in engineering. (Paramount+)
Rillak, Burnham, Adira (Blu del Barrio), and Stamets (Anthony Rapp) in engineering. (Paramount+)
Adira, Culber (Wilson Cruz), and Stamets in engineering. (Paramount+)
COMING HOME — In the season four finale, the DMA approaches Earth and Ni’Var. With evacuations underway, Burnham and the team aboard the U.S.S. Discovery must find a way to communicate and connect with a species far different from their own before time runs out.
Written by Michelle Paradise. Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi.
Star Trek: Discovery’s fourth season concludes with “Coming Home” on March 17 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Paramount+ and on Pluto TV in select international locations.
Star Trek: Picard’s second season continues this week, and we’ve got a new collection of photos from “Assimilation” to share with you today!
After being thrown into an alternate timeline by Q (John de Lance), Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the La Sirena gang must go back in time to modern-day Los Angeles — with the help of the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) — to find what changed history and set time back on track.
Here are fourteen new photos from this week’s episode, along with four previously-released images.
STAR TREK: PICARD— Episode 203: 'Assimilation'
1 of 14
Seven (Jeri Ryan), Rios (Santiago Cabrera), and Picard (Patrick Stewart) aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Seven and Rios aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Rios aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Seven aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Rios and Picard aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Picard aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Seven aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Seven aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Seven and Rios aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Picard and Jurati (Alison Pill) aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Picard and Jurati aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Picard and Jurati aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Picard and Jurati aboard La Sirena. (Paramount+)
Rios, Raffi (Michelle Hurd), and Seven prepare for transport. (Paramount+)
And in case you haven’t seen it, here’s a preview clip from “Assimilation” released during last week’s episode of The Ready Room, and the official Paramount+ trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmUpm7hUZrg
ASSIMILATION — Picard and the crew travel back to 2024 Los Angeles in search of the “Watcher,” who can help them identify the point at which time diverged. Seven, Raffi and Rios venture out into an unfamiliar world 400 years in their past, while Picard and Jurati attempt to gather information from an unlikely, and dangerous, ally.
Written by Kirsten Beyer & Christopher Monfette. Directed by Lea Thompson.
Star Trek: Picard returns March 17 with “Assimilation” on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations.
We seem to be getting closer to the public release of Star Trek: Resurgence, the new video game coming this year from Dramatic Labs — as this month IGN is going all-in on Resurgence reveals, from our first look at gameplay footage to new character introductions.
In case you missed it, here’s the original trailer released by developer Dramatic Labs back in December, showcasing the look and feel of the upcoming post-Star Trek: Voyager-era game.
The main characters of the came were unveiled by IGN on March 10, as they shared first-look images of the main cast of Star Trek: Resurgence, many of whom server aboard the game’s hero starship USS Resolute.
While there are nine major characters in the game, though of course there are likely more to be revealed once the mission begins, players will alternate between Carter Diaz and Jara Ridek during gameplay — the rest of the crew aboard the USS Resolute are non-playable characters.
Carter Diaz, Commander Ridek, and Ambassador Spock. (Dramatic Labs via IGN)
First up is enlisted officer Carter Diaz, who is described as “a dreamer with a thirst for adventure, Carter Diaz decided to skip the Academy, and enlist in Starfleet so he could get out and see the galaxy. He’s a gifted engineer, and while life on the lower decks keeps him far from the decisions on the bridge, he almost always finds himself close to the action.”
Next is a deep-cut Deep Space Nine alien, half-KobliadCommander Jara Ridek, who was “top of her class the Academy and battle-tested in the Dominion War. As a new arrival to the Resolute – and the job of First Officer – Jara will have to earn the trust of her crewmates. But she’s a half-Kobliad, and one of the last of her kind, so used to being an outsider and beating the odds.”
Ambassador Spock is needs no introduction, of course, yet this game sees him depart from his goal of Romulan reunification for a new mission: “When the Federation needs his help in securing a different peace, he answers the call. After all, the pursuit of peace is eminently logical.”
Commander Chovak, Dr. Duvall, and Crewman Edsilar. (Divergent Labs via IGN)
The Resolute’s Vulcan chief engineer is Commander Chovak, “Carter and Edsilar’s boss, and he’s impossible to please. This Vulcan isn’t interested in making friends and has little tolerance for emotional people. His only desire is to execute his duties with the utmost efficiency, and ensure that others do so as well.”
Leading the sickbay staff is Dr. Duvall, chief medical officer, who doesn’t mince words. “The crew trusts Dr. Duvall because she can always be counted on to tell the unvarnished truth – professionally or personally – even when it’s difficult to hear. She’s had her quarrels with Captain Solano, but is still a valued member of the senior staff.”
Nili Edsilar, another enlisted member of the Resolute crew, is an unjoined Trill who “rebelled against the expectations of her society by enlisting in Starfleet. Her best friend Carter Diaz joined up so he could go somewhere, but she just wanted to get away. Whip-smart with a penchant for sarcasm, she’s not afraid to take someone down a peg – even in the heat of battle.”
Captain Solano, Commander Urmott, and Commander Westbrook. (Divergent Labs via IGN)
Commanding the Resolute is Captain Solano, lead the ship “through a disaster six months ago that forced the Resolute into extensive repairs, [and] comes to this mission with a lot to prove. He’s in the twilight of his career, but still has his ambitions, and he’s looking for a way to secure his place in the history books… and he’s counting on Jara to help him do it.”
Operations Officer aboard the Resolute is Bolian Commander Urmott, “tasked with keeping everything running smoothly. [Ops officers] need to be solid and reliable, and this is how Commander Urmott tries to carry himself. He’s one of the Captain’s most steadfast supporters, and he’ll be watching Jara closely, now that she’s joined the Resolute’s senior staff.”
Finally, human science officer Commander Ben Westbrook seems like he may have some resentment for Jara: “Westbrook likes to think he has all the answers. The one question that still vexes him is why he wasn’t chosen as the First Officer, considering the Resolute is usually a science vessel. He speaks his mind and isn’t afraid to make waves, but when he latches onto a problem, he doesn’t let go until it’s solved.”
IGN also dropped the first clips of extended in-game footage this past week, with four minutes of gameplay centered around Carter Diaz as he explores the USS Resolute, and a lengthy mission briefing led by Ambassador Spock — allowing us to get a feel for the Leonard Nimoy soundalike voicing the Vulcan character.
You can see larger versions of the images graphics at IGN’s first-look report; we’ll bring you more on this upcoming 24th century game as we learn more about Star Trek: Resurgence in the coming months!
