Star Trek: Picard – The Impossible Box

After last week’s weighty (but fun) outing, Star Trek: Picard decided it was time to finally start pushing it’s relatively thin narrative forward at warp speed with the plot-packed “The Impossible Box.” After spending half the season talking about saving Soji and the extreme difficulty such a rescue attempt would present, that was shockingly simple, wasn’t it? Raffi blackmailed her way into credentials for the Admiral, Hugh was all too happy to help the man who saved his life, Soji woke up at just the right moment (a lucky narrative break!), and Elnor made it to them just in the nick of time (how he managed that when the Artifact is locked down like Fort Knox, well, perhaps it’s best not too ask too many logic-based questions). Sure, things aren’t looking great for Elnor and Hugh (although I’ll admit I’m excited to see the series finally let Rizzo loose on someone), and the rest of the motley crew needs to evade the Romulan force that’s surely coming for them, but Picard’s going to hang out with Riker and Troi next week, so that’ll be fun!

And here’s the problem with all that I just laid out: I care far more about what happens in the (presumably) low-stakes conversation with Riker and Troi than I do about the fates of the other characters. I don’t want to see Hugh tortured, but considering the series has spent far more time developing Rizzo than it has Elnor or Hugh (who, as a character, has been coasting on what we can recall of his Next Generation appearances), I’m more interested to see what she will do to get what she wants. I honestly don’t care what happens to Rios, Juarati, or Raffi, as the series has given each a single identifiable trait and no further development (although, with Rios, it’s more like several portions of traits, but no real clear character development or direction). Jurati MURDERED her ex-boyfriend last episode, and aside from sleeping with Rios out of grief and shame, we have no idea why she did it. And it was barely referenced after the opening credits. I’m not saying the series needs to show us all its cards right out the gate, but we need some insight into the characters we’re expected to care about. Hell, I’m not even sure Picard really cares much about these characters – at least the series hasn’t really shown us anything to indicate that there’s any deep emotional connections.*

*Ok, that’s a loaded statement to make, considering we’ve seen flashbacks of Picard clearly caring about Elnor and Raffi at different points in his life, but the series has done nothing to show us that there’s a deep, emotional connection to these characters. He doesn’t want them to die? Absolutely. He’s happy they’re helping him in his mission? Definitely. He’s glad to be reunited with people who were an important part of his past? Maybe. But I never get the feeling that Picard would be crushed to lose either one of them. He apparently served with Raffi for a significant period, and they were very close (hell, she has that horrific JL nickname for him, and he likes her enough to let her keep calling him that). Yet every interaction feels strained – even the flashback – like everyone is trying too hard to make fetch happen. Picard isn’t a touchy-feelie guy; we all know that. But he cares deeply for those he considers friends and family. I never get the sense that he cares all that much for the two members of his crew that he should at least care a little bit about. It could be a performance thing. It could be a lack of chemistry between actors. But it’s definitely the result of the writers not bothering, in the long lead-up to this key point in the season, to develop any characters other than Picard and Seven of Nine.

And that brings me back to a conversation I had earlier in this season about stakes. We know that Picard isn’t about to die this season (CBS All Access needs him far too much). But everyone else? Well, they’re fair game. So the show has a clearly vested interest in making us care about them and want them to survive. When they are in peril, we should be on the edge of our seat, hoping they will make it out in one piece (or at least with most of their pieces intact). Not spending sufficient time in the front half of the season developing the new supporting characters in the series is now going to bite the show just when it needs the audience to really care about their fates. Building out new shows and introducing new characters is hard. But for a series that has been content with a slow burn first half, there was plenty of time to build up the show’s core cast of characters. The writers were able to do that was Picard’s home life (remember how well-drawn Laris and Zhaban were?), they certainly could have done the same with Raffi, Rios, and Juratti. We don’t need to be surprised by reveals, we want to spend organic time with characters who are essential to the series.

Whew. Ok. Now, as for this episode itself, well, it was perfectly fine. It moved the plot along nicely – thank god Soji is finally activated and we get to watch Patrick Stewart and Isa Briones work together once more, which should be a joy. And while it wasn’t as successful at achieving its big, emotional goal as it clearly thought it was, the episode did address a key element of Picard’s past that had been left unaddressed for a long time: The trauma of his time with the Borg.

Picard’s conversation with Seven in last week’s episode touched on the continued scars of his time as Locutus and made it clear that Picard has refused to acknowledge the trauma from that experience. Fans of the character can point to his violent, revenge driven streak in Star Trek: First Contact as an extension of that trauma made manifest – causing the normally diplomatic captain to lash out in a way that he hadn’t before and hasn’t since (another reason he cautioned Seven against revenge last week, even though he wasn’t exactly right in comparing the two experiences). The flashbacks were heavy handed in this episode – we didn’t need to see them every time Picard took a step within the Cube. And, while Stewart is a sensational actor, it’s nearly impossible to sell all the emotion one needs to sell when the performance is constantly inter-cut with jarring flashbacks. That took a lot of the emotional depth from the moment, trending it toward bathos rather than pathos.

It’s clear at this stage in the season that the trauma of the Borg is going to be the central emotional thrust for several characters (Hugh, Seven, and Picard). While I suspect the reclaimed Borg will play a role in the Romulan plan to destroy the synths, I’m not sure it will be an earned twist at this stage in the game. The series seems to want to have its cake and eat it too – it wants to have the mysterious girl puzzle box (more on that in a minute), the deeply emotionally scarred cast of characters, and drill down into the audience’s nostalgia by reminding them just how much they loved characters they haven’t seen in decades. That’s a lot for a series that can’t seem to focus on a single narrative at this stage in the season. I’m not sure it can sustain it for the final four episodes.

Final Thoughts:

— The episode might be called “The Impossible Box,” but it’s really about the Impossible Girl (to borrow a phrase from Doctor Who). Soji has been defined by what she is and not who she is for the entirety of the series – something Dahj didn’t fall prey to because she knew who she was by the time we met her (or was in the midst of discovering, really). All Soji has been so far is a MacGuffin to the story: everyone wants to get their hands on her, and she has no agency whatsoever in deciding what happens to her. Until now. With her “powers” active, we now get four episodes to see what she’s like as an actual character rather than a means to an end. I’m excited to see what the series will do with her.

— Jurati and Rios sleeping together isn’t a shocking development – there’s been some chemistry there. But it still felt weird within the context of the story. So much of the season has been about table setting that having characters actually make personal choices doesn’t really fit with the MO the series has established. Sure, if the series keeps running, the characters’ personal lives will factor into things. But going there this early in the run felt odd and out of place.

— Narek was far less annoying this week as he let his “true colors” show (although I’m not wholly convinced he’s totally on Team Romulan), but when a change like this happens after watching him struggle with his emotional connection for the majority of the season, it doesn’t ring true. What made him decide to betray Soji? Did he really care for her? The episode did a poor job of conveying the thought process that went into his grand gesture in the episode. Yes, the surface level choice makes sense (he’s completing his mission), but what was the catalyst that made him stop dithering and just get on with it? He’s had Soji’s trust for weeks, yet why was now the moment to do this? Show us these things, writers. We want to understand our characters.

— Speaking of show us and not telling us, the reveal that the Romulans are searching for the synth home world was a shocker. First, how do they know there is a home world? Were we supposed to know about this? I just assumed the synths were created in a lab and just released. And if there is a home world we never knew about until now, when did they decide to destroy it? If the writers are just letting us into huge elements of the Romulan anti-synth plan at this stage in the game, well, that’s just ridiculous. I actually laughed when Narek revealed it – because it was so poorly integrated into the story. Rather than be a shocking reveal, it played like the writers making up key elements of their endgame as they go along (I assume this isn’t the case, but try to instill some confidence in your audience).