Tag: Q

Whisked into an alternate timeline by Q in the midst of a crisis involving the Borg, Picard is understandably annoyed at his old nemesis’ presence. Q’s cryptic answers do little to tell Picard why he is now in a timeline where Earth is the center of a Confederation that values human life above all others. The polluted Earth is kept habitable only by a system of solar shields, and Picard’s chateau is now a museum of trophies of a life spent conquering and destroying other species. Q will leave Picard in this reality to atone for some unspecified sin, plunging Picard in the deep end since “General” Picard is soon to make a public appearance on Eradication Day, a holiday celebrating the Confederation’s conquests. Picard is not alone in this timeline, however: Seven awakens in ornate surroundings, free of Borg implants since she was never assimilated. As the President of the Confederation, she too is expected to speak on Eradication Day. She contacts Rios, who is very surprised to find himself commanding an all-out assault on Vulcan space. Raffi and Elnor find themselves in the middle of an uprising, one where Raffi has to take Elnor “prisoner” to keep up appearances (and keep him alive), and Agnes is a cyberneticist in a facility that is keeping one of the Confederation’s worst enemies – the Borg Queen herself, who seems very aware of the changes to the timeline – alive in containment until her public execution. Everyone converges on Earth for Eradication Day, which is to be capped off by a public execution of the Borg Queen. Before the ceremony, the Queen calculates that a single change made in 2024, in Los Angeles, changed the timeline, and that a Watcher at that point in history could help restore history. She also agrees to help them travel back in time, but first, everyone involved has to participate in the ceremony, in reality buying time for Raffi and Elnor to lower the security countermeasures enough for all of them to beam up to La Sirena. But snatching the President of the Confederation, her top General, and public enemy #1 away in front of a huge crowd can’t be accomplished easily…and won’t be accomplished without a high price.

teleplay by Akiva Goldsman & Terry Matalas and Christopher Monfette
story by Michael Chabon and Akiva Goldsman & Terry Matalas and Christopher Monfette
directed by Doug Aarniokoski
music by Jeff Russo
additional music by Sam Lucas

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Commander Raffi Musiker), Evan Evagora (Cadet Elnor), Isa Briones (Dr. Soji Asha), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), John de Lancie (Q), Annie Wersching (Borg Queen), Jon Jon Briones (First Magistrate), Patton Oswalt (Spot-73), Toni Belafonte (Zilah), Alex Diehl (Harvey), Paula Andrea Placido (Palace Guard), Hanna-Lee Sakakibara (Romulan Rebel)

Notes: Kirk time-traveling via a slingshot around the sun in a purloined Klingon ship (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, 1986) is identified as a “crude” means of time travel, but likely the only one available. Since the divergence in time is as “early” in Star Trek’s future history as 2024, which son of Sarek’s witnessed his execution is left nebulous, though the hostility between Earth and Vulcan in the altered timeline makes Spock’s very birth unlikely, so it was probably Sybok. Tuvok is mentioned as a leader in the Vulcan war effort on a display screen, but not in dialogue. Annie Wersching’s (1977-2023) first television role was in an early episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, Oasis (2002). Aside from a couple of final appearances in her recurring role on The Rookie, her appearance as the Borg Queen during this season of Star Trek: Picard was her final acting role before she died of cancer in January 2023. Actor Jon Jon Briones is the father of series regular Isa Briones.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

La Sirena is briefly taken over by a boarding party led by the First Magistrate, the husband of this timeline’s President. Seven tries to make a convincing show of pulling rank on him, but her lack of any knowledge about the man only intensifies his suspicion, and in the meantime, his men have already shot Elnor, who lies bleeding out on La Sirena’s deck. But Seven’s bluff is enough of a distraction for her and Raffi to deal with the boarding party. Agnes continues connecting the Borg Queen to La Sirena’s systems, but eventually the Queen proves capable of connecting herself, destroying the pursuing Confederation ships, and initiating the slingshot around the sun for time warp. La Sirena arrives in Earth’s 21st century, and just enough control is regained for Picard to bring the ship in for a rough landing near his family home in France, a place isolated enough to not draw immediate attention. Raffi is powerless to save Elnor’s life and begins expressing doubts in Picard’s leadership. The Borg Queen, having used her power to achieve time travel, is in a comatose state, is key to pinpointing the exact source of the divergence in history, and Agnes embarks on a very risky interface with the Queen’s mind to restore her and retrieve that information, something that draws an unhealthy amount of the Queen’s attention to her. The event involves a Watcher somewhere in the city of Los Angeles; just enough power can be routed to the transporters to beam Seven, Raffi, and Rios there, where they must search without drawing attention. While Raffi and Seven are able to fly under the radar, Rios is injured, and just receiving first aid without identification puts him in the crosshairs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

written by Kiley Rossetter and Christopher Monfette
directed by Lea Thompson
music by Jeff Russo
additional music by Sam Lucas

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Commander Raffi Musiker), Evan Evagora (Cadet Elnor), Isa Briones (Dr. Soji Asha), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), John de Lancie (Q), Annie Wersching (Borg Queen), Chloe Wepper (Gabi), Jon Jon Briones (First Magistrate), Sol Rodriguez (Dr. Teresa Ramirez), Richard Chio (Driver), Gattlin Griffith (Mugger), Steve Gutierrez (Ricardo), Matt Kaminsky (Security Guard), Peter Lindstedt (ICE Officer #1), Maggie Pacleb (Little Girl), Marcelo Tubert (Mr. Alvarez)

Notes: If L.A. seems less populated than it should, there’s a real historical reason: season 2 of Picard was filmed as soon as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted just enough to allow film and TV production to continue. Like many other productions, with on-set COVID testing and protective measures required, the production had to keep crowd scenes to an absolute minimum, employing them only for maximum impact (i.e. the ICE raid). At one point, a positive COVID test among the production crew shut down filming yet again. Director Lea Thompson is indeed the actor who played Marty McFly’s mother in the Back To The Future trilogy, making her a good choice to direct a time-travel-heavy episode; she has an on-screen role later in the season. During the scenes of the Borg Queen’s emergence from her stasis chamber, Joel Goldsmith‘s four-note Borg theme from Star Trek: First Contact is heard prominently, though this was omitted from the later soundtrack release.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Seeking better shelter than the power-drained La Sirena can offer, Picard and Jurati set up camp in the currently abandoned Picard family chateau. They also use the time to compare notes about the information Jurati took from the Borg Queen’s mind, and realize that they have only three days to set the future right. Other information gleaned by Jurati leads Picard to Los Angeles as well – specifically, #10 Forward Avenue, where he finds a young Guinan getting ready to retire from the business of tending bar and listening. She’s not just going out of business, but preparing to leave Earth rather than watching the human race tragically squandering its potential, but she’s also not the watcher that Picard is looking for – nor does she want to tangle with that watcher. Rios is fast-tracked for deportation, and Raffi and Seven stop worrying about how much attention they’re drawing in their quest to save him. Jurati finds herself having to continue upping the stakes in her deal with the devil (or at least the Borg Queen) to help the others. And when Picard finally does meet the watcher, he is surprised to find she has a familiar face.

teleplay by Juliana James & Jane Maggs and Christopher Monfette
story by Travis Fickett and Juliana James
directed by Lea Thompson
music by Jeff Russo
additional music by Sam Lucas

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Commander Raffi Musiker), Orla Brady (Tailinn), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), John de Lancie (Q), Annie Wersching (Borg Queen), Madeline Wise (Yvette Picard), Ito Aghayere (Guinan), Leif Gantvoort (ICE Officer #1), Penelope Mitchell (Renee Picard), Sol Rodriguez (Dr. Teresa Ramirez), Chloe Wepper (Gabi), Karl T. Wright (Francis Puga), Oscar Camacho (Pedro), Sean Freeland (Tall Man), Kelli Dawn Hancock (Officer Stauss), Isabella Meneses (Small Girl), Brian Quinn (Dale), Kirk Randolph Thatcher (Mohawk Punk), Danielle Thorpe (LAPD Officer #1), Dylan Von Halle (Young Picard) and Luna

Notes: The boom-box-toting punk on Raffi and Seven’s bus ride is, indeed, the same character who ran afoul of Kirk and Spock in 1986 (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home), hence his more cooperative attitude on lowering his volume, and he’s played by the same actor. When we first meet Renee Picard (and see Q again), they are both at Jackson Roykirk Plaza, named after the scientist responsible for the Nomad robotic probe launched in 2000 and lost shortly afterward (The Changeling, 1967).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Picard and his crew try to stay inconspicuous and keep eyes on Renee, while Jurati finds herself in a constant negotiation for control of her own mind and body with the Borg Queen. Picard is startled to see another familiar face at the gala, one who knows at least something about who he really is: Adam Soong. Soong tries to give him a warning, and then tries to turn the tables on Picard, but before things can go any further, Jurati provides a distraction, the endorphin bump from which allows the Queen to take over completely. Picard finds Renee and tries to give her a pep talk designed to keep her from backing out of the Europa mission, unaware that Soong is there to force that decision by targeting Renee for a hit-and-run “accident”. Picard pushes her out of the way and he becomes the victim of the hit-and-run instead. Rios calls on Dr. Ramirez, whose clinic he was admitted to earlier, to try to save Picard’s life, but even with his vital signs stabilized, he remains in a coma with an unusually high amount of brain activity. Tallinn thinks she can gain access to his subconscious and bring him out of it, but while Picard’s crew is occupied with his immediate fate, Renee is not protected – and Jurati, with the Borg Queen now fully in control, is at large in Los Angeles.

written by Cindy Appel & Jane Maggs
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Jeff Russo
additional music by Sam Lucas

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Commander Raffi Musiker), Evan Evagora (Elnor), Orla Brady (Tallinn), Isa Briones (Kore Soong), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), Brent Spiner (Adam Soong), John de Lancie (Q), Annie Wersching (Borg Queen), Penelope Mitchell (Renee Picard), Sol Rodriguez (Dr. Teresa Ramirez), Alexandre Chen (Cute Waiter), Ren Hanami (Director Lee), Michelle Haro (Guard #1), Shaw Jones (Guard #2), Richard Leacock (Commander Musa), Zach Sowers (Security Guard #1), Kareem Stroud (Security Guard #2)

Notes: The OV-165 shuttle identified by Renee Picard can also be seen in the opening credits of every episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. The song “Shadows Of The Night”, made famous by Pat Benatar’s 1982 recording, actually dated back to being written for the soundtrack of the 1980 Tim Curry film Times Square, though the song was left out of the movie and thus dropped from the soundtrack. Other artists recorded the song before Benatar’s version, which made it to #3 and won her a Grammy Award. Amusingly, either Jurati/the Queen selected a song that was already on the band’s setlist, or the band was unusually well-prepared in the event of an impromptu performance of “Shadows Of The Night”. Alison Pill did do her own singing, which appears on the season two soundtrack.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Inside Picard’s subconscious with him, Tallinn can only watch as Picard psychoanalyzes himself (in the guise of his own father, in a Starfleet uniform his father never wore) and constantly hearkens back to memories of his mother when he was a young boy. His memories center on the family chateau, and the tunnels beneath it, and other than fleeting glimpses of a physical struggle between his parents, Picard’s mind gives up only hints of anything further. He awakens and decides to go on the offensive, asking Guinan to summon Q, an ability he knows she possesses as an El-Aurian. Returning to La Sirena, Seven and Raffi discover that Agnes Jurati is, to some unknown but growing extent, occupied by the Borg Queen; Seven worries that their trip back in time may have brought a far greater danger with them than anything Q has done. After witnessing Tallinn’s mindlink with Picard in her clinic, Dr. Ramirez asks Rios, point-blank, who he is…and he tells her, and then takes her and her son to La Sirena to prove it. In a Los Angeles dive bar, the Queen-as-Jurati no longer cares how much attention she is drawing to herself. In another bar, Guinan uses an ancient ritual to bring Q to her and Picard…but instead they’re arrested in an FBI raid.

written by Jane Maggs
directed by Joe Menendez
music by Jeff Russo
additional music by Sam Lucas

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Commander Raffi Musiker), Orla Brady (Tallinn), Isa Briones (Kore Soong), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), James Callis (Maurice Picard), Madeline Wise (Yvette Picard), Sol Rodriguez (Dr. Teresa Ramirez), Ito Aghayere (Guinan), Jay Karnes (Agent Wells), Ivo Nandi (LeClerc), Steve Gutierrez (Ricardo), Dylan Von Halle (Young Picard), Marti Matulis (Prisoner), Oscar Torre (Bartender), Travis Walck (Jester), Cyrus Zoghi (Red Bearded Guy)

Notes: Maurice Picard had been seen before, again courtesy of Q, in an older form in Tapestry (1993), though he had died some time before that (and, as he claims here, with his hair intact). Guinan’s ritual hand gestures were previously glimpsed in another comfrontation with Q in Q Who? (1989). Jay Karnes previously guest starred in another time-hopping Star Trek story (Voyager‘s Relativity episode in 1999), and his appearance here had some corners of internet fandom convinced that he must be playing the same character. Another guest star, James Callis, is better known to genre TV fans as Gaius Balter in the 21st century reboot of Battlestar Galactica.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

In FBI custody, Picard and Guinan begin to suspect that Agent Wells, their captor, may be acting without authorization. But whether he’s unhinged or not, Wells is also aware that Picard and a group of other uninvited guests were present at the Europa mission gala. Wells has Guinan taken to another room while he interrogates Picard. Guinan gets a visitor as well – Q finally appears, annoyed to find her on Earth in this time period. Raffi and Seven find Jurati, but everything points toward the Borg Queen being in complete control, until Jurati passes up an opportunity to kill Raffi. Having exposed Dr. Ramirez and her son to the truth, Rios finds that he can’t control anything on his ship, thanks to Borg encryption forced into his system by Jurati before she left. A message left for her by Q tells Kore everything about her past and her father’s history of genetic experimentation – and Q offers her the ability to step into the outside world. Picard turns the tables on Wells, asking why it’s so important for him to prove the existence of aliens in 2024, and the results dredged up from Wells’ childhood memories prove fascinating. Jurati, needing advanced electronic components to give her the ability to assimilate, finds an appropriately unethical ally in Adam Soong.

written by Cindy Appel & Kirsten Beyer
directed by Joe Menendez
music by Jeff Russo
additional music by Sam Lucas

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Commander Raffi Musiker), Evan Evagora (Elnor), Orla Brady (Tallinn), Isa Briones (Kore Soong), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), Brent Spiner (Adam Soong), John de Lancie (Q), Sol Rodriguez (Dr. Teresa Ramirez), Ito Aghayere (Guinan), Jay Karnes (Agent Wells), Kay Bess (La Sirena Computer), Jackson Garner (Young Wells), Steve Gutierrez (Ricardo), Nanrisa Lee (FBI Agent), Charles Maceo (Merc One), Eduardo Roman (Vulcan #1), Chuti Tiu (Vulcan #2), Oscar Torre (Bartender), Cyrus Zoghi (Red Bearded Guy)

Notes: Seven’s memories of being assimilated at a young age were explored in more detail in numerous episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (The Raven, 1997; Dark Frontier Part I and Part II, 1999). Voyager fans who had spent the week since Monsters speculating that Jay Karnes’ Picard and Voyager characters were related were in for a letdown, but Agent Wells’ flashbacks to meeting Vulcans at a young age may (or, just as easily since they apparently had a ship with working transporters, may not) have had some connection to the Vulcans left behind on Earth to live in Carbon Creek (2002).

LogBook entry by Earl Green