| Episode: | 22 | | | Writer: | Christopher Monfette & Sean Tretta | | | Director: | Doug Aarniokoski | | | Air Date: | 23-Feb-2023 |
Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching another episode of Picard, called Disengage. Hey, I see what they did there.
It was written by Christopher Monfette & Sean Tretta. I recognise Monfette from season 2, he worked on some of the better eps, but I don't think I've seen Tretta's name on anything before. Director Doug Aarniokoski has been there since the start, he's the one that did Nepenthe, The Star Gazer, Penance... lots of the good episodes. Aarniokoski was on Discovery as well, starting with the episode Lethe, so he's a proper Star Trek veteran. He hasn't done any of Strange New Worlds yet, but I suppose there's plenty of time for that now it's been renewed.
There will be SPOILERS below, so beware.
RECAP
Picard, Riker and Jack Crusher are still over on the Eleos, along with an injured Beverly Crusher held in stasis. A giant warship, the Shrike, is keen on beaming Jack away, but Picard uses transporter inhibitors and they settle for catching the ship in a tractor beam instead. The Titan comes to the rescue, recovering Picard, Riker, Jack and Dr Crusher, but the Shrike's captain, Vadic, claims that Jack is a criminal with a bounty on him.
Captain Shaw is fine with the idea of handing Jack over to save his crew (the fact that a bounty hunter vessel can threaten Starfleet's brand new Titan like this doesn't seem to strike him or anyone else as unusual). Funnily enough Jack is fine with handing himself over as well, as he wants to save his mother. But when Picard figures out that Jack is his son as well, Shaw has to accept that handing the kid over is not an option, and he orders the Titan to flee into a nebula.
Meanwhile, Raffi meets a Ferengi criminal called Sneed to get information on the terrorist attack, against the orders of her handler. She takes the drugs she's offered to prove she's not a cop, but he's going to kill her anyway. Fortunately her mysterious unseen handler shows up and starts decapitating people. Turns out that it's Worf!
REVIEW
I mean, I enjoyed Killjoys and Dark Matter, and I was even on board with live-action Cowboy Bebop at first. But Cowboy Bebop's writers decided to do their own thing instead of being restrained by the anime's tone, smashing through the walls that defined it and bringing the whole thing crashing down into absurdity. Now Picard's heading down the same road... driving a metaphorical dune buggy.
This is Star Trek and we're following a Starfleet crew, so I'm all set to watch a very grounded organisation deal with absolute space weirdness in a professional and rational way. Even Lower Decks plays that bit straight... kind of. But instead I'm getting Captain Asshole firing and un-firing Seven every two minutes, and Raffi doing the 'take the drugs to prove you're not an undercover cop' trope. The writers have tried so hard to be grown up that they've made it feel more childish.
I like Raffi, I'm pro Raffi, but I'm really glad we got a surprise Worf appearance as watching her hunt down terrorists on her own in that same damn alleyway for the second episode in a row has not been doing anything for me. I just wanted them to cut back to what Picard was doing.
Those are my complete thoughts about her plotline this episode.
Fortunately Worf is still alive and his makeup looks pretty great as well. I'm really really glad they've gone back to the standard Klingon look instead of the Discovery redesign. Partly because it looks better, but mostly because I don't need this making the claim that every episode of TNG looks wrong and Worf actually has a big blobby head.
In fact, I don't know what his business is, as it doesn't seem to be commanding a starship. He makes literally every other captain I've ever seen in Star Trek seem more heroic and competent by comparison. I've gained a new respect for Captain J.T. Esteban, Captain Styles, Captain Ransom... I was going to say Captain Archer, but he doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the Captain Shaw I've seen so far.
The episode also introduces Amanda Plummer as the captain of the mysterious Shrike, which apparently has all of the guns on it, and she seems to be having all of the fun hamming it up. It's the right performance for the role, and the right role for the story. Though listing the different kinds of weapons the other ship has doesn't impress me when we've seen the future on Discovery and Starfleet's still using phasers and torpedoes. That's all you need apparently!
So the reveal at the end that he is Picard's son isn't a surprise twist for us, it's a character moment for Picard as he accepts who he is and steps up to protect him. Even Shaw has to respect how well that was executed as he gives up on trying to send Jack over and types a secret plan into his chair, so Picard only has to say "Engage!" to get the action started.
Next up, it's the Titan-A versus the Shrike!
RATING
Alright, to properly decide what score to give Disengage I'm going to mentally rank it against the second episode of TNG's third season, The Ensigns of Command. That's the one where Picard has to stall for time while Data convinces colonists to get off a planet.
The Next Gen ep has its moments, and obviously it feels a lot more like Star Trek than this does, but despite everything I think I kind of liked this episode more. Picard's appeal for me has always been its characters and I did enjoy all the scenes of Picard and Riker dealing with Jack. Though the series has returned to the edgy Stardust City Rag zone here and it's not my favourite side of Picard, so the episode is only getting...
7/10
My heart is saying it should actually get a 6, but that was a really good Ferengi so I'm giving it an extra point to spite Discovery.
NOT COMING NEXT
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