The Bounty

The reunion of old friends and the emergence of new friends is amazing. When the old crew met up with each other again after so many years, its been amazing to watch. To bring in picards son and the daughters of the great gordie la forge, this is amzing, this season is truly passing the torch to the next generation and the chapter of the old generation is closing after so many years, this has needed to come for a long time. This season brings so many possiblities for new and future trek shows, one where the kids of picard and la forge can be apart of it. The next generation, the legacies of known characters.

So many callbacks for hard core Trekkies, it was hard to keep score.

I guess the best bit was at the fleet museum with the Defiant and Voyager and the accompanying themes. It gives Jack a moment to gush over the starships even though he has no time for Starfleet.

The callbacks were strictly for fans. The obvious example being the brief return of Moriarty. The brief flashbacks of a younger Riker from The Next Generation leading to the introduction of a new Data.

With the Titan hunted by the rest of Starfleet. Picard goes to see an old friend Geordi La Forge who runs the fleet museum. He is reluctant to help as he does not want to place his daughters in harm's way.

Meanwhile Riker, Raffi and Worf break into the Daystrom Station to find out just what was taken by the Changelings.

Vadic has nefarious plans to get Picard and will go through all his contacts to get to him.

As the Next Generation band reunites slowly, characters like Captain Shaw were sidelined. Although enjoyable I did did think the main plot stuttered slightly due to all the fan service.

Amanda Plummer on the other hand out chewed the scenery more than her father ever did in Star Trek 6 in this episode.

This is not Picard this is TNG on all levels.

This is what we have missed for almost 3 decades. Thanks everyone who have somehow participated in production.

Please keep up the hype all that high till the very end.

***

With all the legendary characters we meet again, the show gains more sentiment, nostalghia, heart-warmth and feeling of wholeness.

And the cliffhanger was placed so damn good, while keeping you at the edge of your chair all the time.

***

And the ships! Really? All of them at once? That was trully unexpected. I'd really love to see some interiors, but still that scene really made me sob with joy!

6 episodes deep into this season, and for once a modern Trek show can actually hold its quality, and arguably improve upon it. This is exactly the quality of writing and plot advancement I've been craving Post-Voyager. None of the TNG films pulled this off, they were too busy fighting a Romulan clone of Picard or something (I didn't hate Nemisis but uh, yeah). Then we got a prequel show that was alright, but didn't move the Trek universe forward too much but that was okay.

Finally, FINALLY we're actually wrapping up and advancing plots from the TNG, DS9, and Voyager era. Was this so much to ask? These writers are actually using previously well established plot points and are working with them, something that hasn't been done since 2001. DS9 was my favorite series and this season is taking the best aspects of that and combining them with TNG. Spectacular. TNG arguably has the most iconic cast, or second most for sure, so it's about time some competent folks take the best aspects the Trek universe has to offer and grow them further, which I've been wanting for 2 decades now.

This episode carried that strong momentum that episode 3 brought with it (I was fairly skeptical in the first 2 episodes), and I feel like it is only going to pick up as the season progresses. This gives me hope for what can come yet for Star Trek sequel series, and I will cherish season 3 of Picard as it is airing. This gives me hope that maybe there will be another show like TNG and DS9 with their writing caliber, or something of the combination of the two. If you haven't started watching Picard in general, skip the first 2 seasons and watch this season. Support the living crap out of this show, because this is what this franchise has desperately needed.

...In some form, obviously not as Rene Aberjonois...

The senior, senior Trekker writes. Or in this case, dictates. Which is why I always have to come back and correct the typos...

This episode has surprise upon surprise, reversal upon reversal, it's another "Trek of all Treks".

I admit that some of the other seasons of this show, and some of the other shows may have had stories that were not as good as this. The original series had episodes like Spocks Brain. And the issues with that episode were issues due to the lack of money to make the production as well as it would have been made in the first season of TOS. But as with all Trek stories, there is a very good premise at the bottom of even that episode- what would happen if men and women were totally alienated from each other? Would our world look like that world?

And I think people get too hung up on issues of production and completely miss the social commentary, which is there in each episode. And this is how the show has been from the beginning, it has not changed for any of the movies or newer shows, and it has not changed for all three seasons of Picard.

Because there are things that we all need to talk about and we get uncomfortable when these things are brought out in the open, especially in an episode of a Star Trek show.

It just does not matter to me as I love Star Trek, whatever form it takes: from the very first pilot episode, through all of the movies, including Star Trek V, all the television shows from the 80s and 90s and early 2000s, and most of the fan made shows like Star Trek Continues, and The other fan films, like Of Gods and Men and Star Trek Renegades both directed by Tim Russ. There was even a fan made show that had a lot of episodes that followed a ship called the Excelsior through the Briar patch, where they battled aliens that looked like some of the "first ones" from Babylon five (aka, they flew ships that looked like buckets). I think it was called Hidden Frontier, many of the episodes are on YouTube. I even enjoy the idea of a mycelial spore drive, and a saucer section that spins around, like a coin dancing on a table.

Regardless of what form the shows take or what they are about I have found that most of them follow Gene Roddenberry's formula on what makes Star Trek, Trek.

I have found this season of this show to be particularly endearing as it brings back beloved characters, even if we get to see them for only a short time.

In the week since the previous episode, my mind went through cogitations to see if I could figure out what was going to happen, and happily, I was wrong with every assumption and every prediction that I made.

Because what is better than to be totally and completely taken off guard, to be surprised, to have the unexpected completely tossed at your face?

As Thomas Ryker told Kira Neres, "expect the unexpected".

And this is what we have right here, right now.

This is a Strange New World of a type that we never even imagined would be talked about.

There are some things between the shape shifter that Amanda Plummer is portraying and "Jack Crusher" - there is some commonality between the two. What is it? And we still have the branches "spreading, connecting". I have asked before, is it the crystalline entity? Is it Armus? I don't know, we just have to let the story tell itself.

But what surprises me here the most is the Changlings Choice of ultimate weapon. And that is the only hint of any type that you are going to get out of me. And, oh yes... Geordies Kids names, sound familiar?