Picard: Imposters

I've recently returned from a week-long vacation in Steamboat Springs. It was a fun-filled week of skiing and board games. I don't really have any tales of the former to share (though this continues to be an excellent season for skiing); I will likely post about new games I enjoyed in the days and weeks ahead.

But right away, I want to pick up with Star Trek: Picard's final season before I fall even further behind. The episode that dropped right as I was heading out on vacation, "Imposters," was certainly one that set internet tongues wagging.

When the Titan returns to Federation space, they receive a less-than-warm welcome from Starfleet Intelligence. An agent with a past connection to Picard and Riker is there to conduct an inquiry, exposing old emotional wounds that have not yet healed. Beverly Crusher discovers that changelings are now able to impersonate targets even more completely than ever before. Jack Crusher wrestles with the increasing influence of voices deep inside him. And elsewhere, Raffi and Worf follow a new lead to try to uncover the plot against the Federation.

There was a lot to talk about here, but the lightning rod for all the online conversation was the episode's special guest star. (Spoilers, if you've somehow come this far without knowing!) The return of Michelle Forbes as Ro Laren was an unexpected but exciting development in this final nostalgic season. Though her character arc on The Next Generation was concluded rather definitively, there were at least two reasons to revisit it now. With the complete destruction of the Maquis a few years later on Deep Space Nine, you might well wonder what became of Ro Laren. And, more importantly, The Next Generation was -- as a mostly episodic series -- not always equipped to explore the emotional fallout of important character milestones, and it did not really do so in this character's case.

Star Trek: Picard was very much interested in the emotional aftermath of Ro joining the Maquis and turning against Picard. In a way, there was so much hurt dredged up that it was hard to believe that Picard and Ro could reach an accord of any kind in the span of just one episode. On the other hand, the episode wasn't really trying to say that they did. They were softening to each other, perhaps only in the face of a greater threat they needed to unite against... and then, tragically, that's all the time they got. This was one occasion where bringing back a character for a single episode, just to kill them off, was actually a very effective writing choice. True, this moment probably packed little punch if you weren't a long time fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation... but at this halfway point in the season, it feels like this series is done "onboarding" people; if you're a newer Star Trek fan and you've come this far, you're probably here until the end.

The rest of the episode was good, but not quite as satisfying. The Raffi/Worf subplot was a bit heavy on the cliches (as it sort of has been so far), building up to a staged "fight to the death" that felt a bit forced. Still, the false death of Worf did help make the real death of Ro in the "A plot" land with more impact. Also, it remains fun to see Worf and Raffi work as an "opposites attract" buddy cop team. And there was another treat for fans of Terry Matalas' previous show, 12 Monkeys, as Kirk Acevedo -- another alum of that show -- appeared as the Vulcan crime lord (there's a fun idea) Krinn. (At this point, if you were on 12 Monkeys and aren't in the final season of Star Trek: Picard, it would seem you've either given up acting, are too busy on other projects, or were secretly a pain to work with. Everyone else is getting a role.)

There are a couple of areas of the episode that have me feeling some cautious skepticism. First is the Jack Crusher subplot. The show sure seems to be steering the audience to think that Jack is a changeling -- so hard, in fact, that I retain some optimism that this must not be what they're actually doing. I certainly don't want that to be the case; any revelation that undermines the core truth that Jack is Beverly and Jean-Luc's son feels to me like it would destroy an emotional pillar of this final season that must remain in place.

Also, it's begun to rub me just a little bit how weird it is to have Picard and The Next Generation crew talking so much about changelings. All of that was Deep Space Nine's thing, and it feels a bit strange to see The Next Generation crew (save Worf) picking up that language, that paranoia, so easily. Though I'll wager if you give me a DS9 character cameo at some point (especially if it's O'Brien, who originated on The Next Generation anyway), my small discomfort will be more than adequately addressed.

I give "Imposters" a B+. It might not have offered much for newer Trek fans, but it was a solid episode for a long-time fan like me.