IR TV Review: PICARD - EPISODE 8 ("Broken Pieces") [CBS All Access]
The intention of character is based within the ideal of who a person is destined to be, what they are willing to show the world and the intentioned basis of what they believe their overall goal to be. The essence within the 8th episode of "Star Trek: Picard" aptly titled "Broken Pieces" reflects this in the ideals of the people involved in this tome, specifically the ones specifically on a ship heading for a Starbase then another specific destination. The main one of course is Soji, as her life has been upended and she is still coming to terms whether her life is tangibly real or not. She is finding certain balance points which are interesting especially when it comes to the captain of her new ship. The show, in this episode, is focusing on the nature of duality. As it progresses at one point Picard is sitting across from Soji asking a very pertinent question, and Picard almost sidesteps it until she brings him to task instinctually but unknowingly. It is a very big character moment for Picard. But it reflects backs too in Raffi and the Captain's interactions which also take on a very existential point which oddly enough brings to mind issues of tendency from The Doctor on "Voyager". It is dynamic and unusual and perhaps the first time we have seen this kind of progression in quite this way on Star Trek (in a case where it didn't involve a holodeck).
On the flip side there is a Seven Of Nine issue which plays into duality within a method of control or perhaps tendency. It is a hard reflexive moment which interestingly enough is not even her own and yet in the moments seen speak volumes. Alison Pill's doctor character is the McGuffin here because she is intelligent enough to be believed but scared enough to do anything, especially with the crazed look in her eyes around Soji. The ideas of mental stability but also trangression are themes that are interestingly diametric here from scene to scene. And so the changing perspective within the series continues.B+
By Tim Wassberg