Star Trek: PicardSeason 2, Episode 5 titled, “Fly Me To The Moon” sheds quite a bit more light on just what the crew of the stargazer is going to have to do in order to fix the future. Of course, what it hasn’t quite shown is just how the crew is going to get back once it thinks it’s figured out how to fix things. The episode also finally shows the two-prongedapproach that Q is usingin order to change the future.
That in and of itself is a bit odd, because the first four episodes of the series seemed to make it clear that he changed exactly one thing in order to make Picard’s present a kind of hellscape. Of course, it’s possible that while he went back in time, he changed up some things that didn’t actually contribute to the future that the Stargazer crew wants to change back, but still had an impact. Here’s hoping that will be explained in greater detail at some point. The good news is thatStar Trek: The Next Generationhas long-established Q as someone who loves giving Bond Villain monologues when he thinks he’s been found out, so it seems extremely likely that he’ll shed some light.
RELATED:Ian McKellen Told Patrick Stewart Not to Play Picard in Star Trek
One of the things the crew of the Stargazer is going to need is apparentlythe Borg Queenand “Fly Me To The Moon” does a very good job of showing just how dangerous relying on something like her can really be. There have been some vague allusions to just how dumb it was to allow her to stay alive and continue to have access to ways to mess everything up. It turns out that this particular episode demonstrated that in very big ways. It also happened to demonstrate that when someone is as close to pure evil as the Borg Queen is, it’s probably not a good idea to take them into the past and let them just sort of mess around.
On the other hand, her interactions with Jurati seem a bit weird and out of character considering what the Queen has been before. She certainly has been known to toy with people before. She’s often enjoyed toying with Picard both in this seriesandStar Trek: First Contact. However, this time around, it sure feels like her messing around with Jurati and the rest of the Stargazer crew is going to have a direct impact on whether or not she is able to get back to her own time.
Of course, if she’s able to go back in time and mess with things in a way that allows her to win the war against the humans, she might decide that’s a better outcome than going back to her timeline. That of course is the main plot ofFirst Contact. To that end, that the crew is leaving her alone in that ship seems to be a real oversight, especially since Picard absolutely knows that’s been her goal before. As is the case with this episode ofStar Trek: Picard, the story and the storytelling continue to be quite good on the whole, but there are definitely some holes in the story that’s been woven.
Elsewhere inStar Trek: Picard, Jean-Luc has found the watcher and is trying to convince her that she needs to do more than just watch this time around. It turns out there are several different problems with this particular offshoot of the story and at least one that is downright silly. The first that seems a bit hollow is just how little the captain, who has spent his entire career as an explorer who wants to get answers, doesn’t really care about what the Watcher is and why she’s even there. He’s far more interested in wondering whether or not she’s the same person he thinks he knows from his real present.
The two have been sitting in her apartment having a regular old conversation about literally everything she does and yet “but why and how are you here” doesn’t seem to be something he really wants or needs to know. This seems extremely hard to fathom, especially considering that it would seem as though the implication here is that somewhere out there, is a Watcher that has been assigned to him. And he doesn’t seem to care about connecting those dots either. This is one of the plot holes or script issues that tends tohold backStar Trek: Picardfrom being a truly great series and is only very good.
The one issue that makesthis episode ofStar Trek: Picardventure quite close to ridiculous is his outrage when he finds out who the Watcher’s charge is and how she does it. At one point, the pair are looking in on what is a session with a psychologist where the charge is talking all about her anxieties and depression. Picard is, for reasons passing understanding absolutely outraged that she would be looking in on this “private” session.
The issue of course is, how did he think the Watcher operated? Did the name not tip him off to just what this being did? Did he think the entity just followed her charge around and was polite enough to leave her alone when she had to go to the bathroom, or was talking to a doctor? The whole premise of his outrage and the fact that he actually voiced that outrage was more than a little silly and was something that absolutely could have been left out oftheStar Trek: Picardscript.
Barring what is a plot line that could use some work when it comes to the Watcher, the one thing the episode does do very nicely is set up what’s yet to come.Season 2 ofStar Trek: Picardhas already been pretty fast-moving and action-packed, but it appears the second half of the season is going to be rolling downhill quite nicely. It appears that all the chess pieces are on the board and the game is about to begin. Setting up those pieces in “Fly Me To The Moon” was done quite well.
Star Trek: Picardseason 2 is streaming on Paramount Plus with new episodes available every Thursday
