Star Trek: Picard – Episode 5, Fly Me To The Moon

Laris, Orla Brady (“The Foreigner”, “Into the Badlands (TV)”), takes Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart (“Logan”, “Green Room”), to her place, but she isn’t Laris, she doesn’t know this name Picard keeps using, nor does she know anyone called ‘Q’.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, a woman is attempting to handle a space-flight, unsuccessfully, luckily it is only a simulator for a real flight that takes place soon. We see the name tag, Renée Picard, Penelope Mitchell (“The Hyperions”, “Hellboy”), it transpires this is who Laris/not-Laris is protecting in this timeline.

Back on the ship, remember them, The Borg Queen, Annie Wersching (“Bosch (TV)”, “Runaways (TV)”), has found unlimited voices within the local cellular frequencies and gets the computer to tap into one so she can call the police to her location.

Raffi Musiker, Michelle Hurd (“Blindspot (TV)”, “Hawaii Five-0 (TV)”), and Seven of Nine, Jeri Ryan (“Devil’s Revenge”, “Bosch (TV)”), are still arguing on the best way to get Cristóbal Rios’, Santiago Cabrera (“Big Little Lies (TV)”, “The Flight Attendant (TV)”), from the prison bus he’s on, without doing inordinate damage to the timeline, they eventually find a way.

We learn that Laris/not-Laris has been monitoring everything Renée has been doing, including her meetings with a psychiatrist who appears to be talking out of her taking part in the mission. This mission is known in Picard’s future as a key event in time and, when he gets a look at the psychiatrist, we see it is Q, John de Lancie (“Manipulated”, “When the Train Stops (Short)”).

Next, another The Next Generation favourite joins the team as we meet Dr. Adam Soong, Brent Spiner (“Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (TV)”, “Independence Day: Resurgence”). Here, he is a father to Kore Soong, Isa Briones (“Takers”, “Lonely Boy”), who we know from series one as Soji the android.

Kore has a genetic defect that means she isn’t able to leave the house, a single piece of dust will cause her respiratory system to fail, the sun will boil her blood. Try as he might, and he’s been trying some dodgy things from the sounds of it, Adam can’t find a cure until fate steps in, in the form of Q.

Q provides Adam with the cure he’s been looking for, but this version is only temporary. If Adam helps him with his Picard problem, he’ll give the complete answer to help his daughter.

Picard and Laris/not-Laris arrive on the ship to tell the rest of the group, now all back together, the plan: they need to attend a gala that Renée will be at in order to keep an eye on her and ensure she takes part in the mission. Getting in to the gala won’t be easy and Dr. Agnes Jurati, Alison Pill (“Them (TV)”, “Devs (TV)”),, as per usual, hasn’t been telling the whole truth.

Some of you have been commenting on the ‘political’ nature of this season of Picard but that’s not what’s bothering me, personally. Star Trek has always been like that, it was Gene Roddenberry’s signature almost.

No, what’s bothering me is how little is actually taking place not on Earth and how the writers appear to be lining up the same character to perform the same sort of double-cross that we saw last season. I mean, it’s still good and I’ll still watch, I just hoped for more at this stage.