The third episode of the third season of “Picard” kicks off the start of “Star Trek” boldly going to a place it has been afraid to tackle for nearly two decades.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “STAR TREK: PICARD” 3×01-3×03
Though playing out like a bit of a redux of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” in its first two episodes, the new run finally starts showing its hand in regards to the greater season arc in play with the third episode “Seventeen Seconds”.
The episode sees “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” actor Thomas Dekker (who actually played Picard’s son in his Nexus visions in “Star Trek: Generations” back in 1994) guest starring as Titus Rikka, a human underworld figure whom is captured by Worf and Raffi. During his interrogation the truth is revealed – he’s a rogue Changeling.
As Worf subsequently explains, he received word from Odo that a rogue faction of Changelings was bitter over losing the Dominion War and broke away from the Great Link to seek revenge. They are the ones behind what’s going on with at least one onboard the Titan posing as Ensign Foster.
From his point forwards (we’ve seen up to episode 6), “Picard” finally tackles one of the murkiest periods of in “Star Trek” history – the post-Dominion War years. “Star Trek: Voyager” essentially avoided it altogether, the last two Next Gen crew films made only passing reference to it, and subsequent series have been set in either far earlier or far later time periods, or in the case of the Abrams-produced films a whole different timeline.
Even “Picard” in its first two seasons went out of its way to avoid callbacks to that era of Trek canon and the legacy of the franchise’s darkest and most mature series with “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”. Now though the new season sets itself up as a full-blown sequel to all of Berman-era “Star Trek” and not just Next Generation.
It expands the show’s stakes beyond the personal to Picard to one of the Federation’s legacy, one it can’t even officially acknowledge for fear of reigniting a war that decimated a good portion of the galaxy and whose full impact remains vague.
What the new season does acknowledge though is “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and its place in the greater franchise. Often treated like the black sheep because of its more serialised storytelling and heavier political and emotional themes dealing with the cost of war, religion, and duty. With the new season its finally starts getting recognition from the rest of canon it has long deserved.
There are still seven episodes to go with the fourth set to premiere on March 9th.
