IR TV Review: STAR TREK - PICARD - EPISODE 8 (“Surrender”) [Paramount+-S3]
The trajectory of the 3rd season of "Picard" has balanced between the aspect of nostalgia and creating something brilliant with stakes. At the beginning, because of almost a no-win situation, the feeling of dread was palpable. The audience knows that these legacy characters were coming in but the aspect we didn't quite get was loss. With the introduction of Data again and continuing in Episode 8 with “Surrender”, the whole aspect of the first season became subverted. It was the sense of loss that the Picard character felt with Data finally gone that reflected in his own mortality. This season in a way subverts that. It does use different touchstones from different great Trek moments over the years. It doesn't belittle them but this feels less like life and death and more like these characters coming back with a sense of fun while keying in that everything might end (or it won't).
It is an odd tone which has both some beautiful moments but also a lack of tension. When the "Conspiracy" happened in the original series (TNG) there seemed to be a thought that it all could come crashing down and the galaxy would be in chaos. Here it doesn't give that feeling. Starfleet could collapse and yet everyone would survive. That shouldn't be the case as much. There needs to be dread. Amanda Plummer as Varic has had the best trajectory (much like Alison Pill last year), but it almost doesn't gel with everything else going on. With some of the strategy, what I would like to see is a deep space exploration ship captained by Seven since she knows the aspect of taking risks. One conference room scene in this episode is historic and awesome but two episodes before the finale, it seems almost anti-climactic. However that might just be the angle of a false sense of security on purpose. Jack Crusher is still a mystery but that ship has almost sailed which is besides the point unless we get Wesley in on the game (which might still be a possibility). B-
By Tim Wassberg
