Star Trek Into Darkness 3×08

2023/04/06 in science fiction, serialized, spoiler
Tags: Data, Jack Crusher, Picard, Simon Tarses, Star Trek, Star Trek Picard, The Drumhead, Titan, Vadic

Out of all the Season 3 episodes so far, I liked this one the most, because finally things seem to be moving along. Everything up until right now, felt like a holding action. They never should have struggled with Vadic for this long. This should have happened in 3×04, not in 3×08. For the first time, all of the TNG crew met each other face to face. Again, this isn’t something that should have happened at the end of the season. All of them should have teamed up much much earlier. Their interactions are the best part of this show after all.

It really makes me double down on my opinion from last time, that they could have cut whole episodes. Introducing a secret about Jack Crusher at the beginning of the Season, then adding nothing substantial to it for the whole Season and then, presumably, just doing a reveal at the end of the Season, isn’t good writing.

I also dislike those lines, that Jack’s whatever syndrome is something he inherited from Picard. Picard possessing whatever kind of “super-genes” that can give people superpowers, would seriously damage this character for me. Even after they already damaged him with all this android nonsense. Picard was never more and was never supposed to be more than some guy who is good at his job, because Starfleet trained him well and he worked hard and he managed to make good use of some opportunities that presented themselves to him.

Why do so many writers think, that these “chosen one” storylines are smart or desirable. Especially in this context. More often than not it just cheapens everything. Sadly the writing team behind Season 3 really seems to broadly subscribe to this crap. One of my favorite episodes, not just from TNG, but seriously from all Star Trek, is “The Drumhead“. It’s about Picard defending some random crew member, Simon Tarses. Picard doesn’t defend Tarses because he’s someone special, or because he owes him a favor or anything like that. No. He didn’t need to be someone special. The only reason, Picard defends this guy, the only reason Picard NEEDS to defend this guy, is that it’s the right thing to do. That’s it. That makes it so much more powerful, than Picard only doing that, because he’s his son or something.

That’s sadly no longer the ideology this show follows. This already rubbed me the wrong way back in 3×02, when Picard only decides to defend Jack Crusher, after Dr. Crusher shows up on the bridge and let’s him know that Jack is his son. To TNG Picard this would have made no difference whatsoever. He just wouldn’t have turned over someone to criminals. Period. “Star Trek: Picard” Picard would have let Simon Tarses go to jail or commit suicide in his desperation or whatever, because he wasn’t a relative. Stuff like that really bothers me. When I watched Star Trek shows as a kid, this is why I would have loved to join Starfleet – this is what made it palpable to me, why people would be proud to wear this uniform. This doesn’t make me feel this way at all. It also weirds me out, how someone could grow up watching Star Trek and now sees things this way. Especially in this context of Star Trek. It’s like they didn’t get it at all. They might have seen it, but they didn’t understand it. I just don’t get what’s supposed to be cooler or more desirable about this “Dark Trek” version of this universe. They clearly must think this is better, or else they wouldn’t have changed it. They obviously have complete creative freedom here and could have gone in any direction they wanted.

But yeah, otherwise this is the best ep of this entire series to me, so far. Brent Spiner is really great in it. This whole cast just still fits well together. Again, they should have leaned into this relatively early in the Season and not delay this for so long. Especially since this Season was supposed to be about the cast getting back together, I would have expected this to be more front and center.

Now I’m worried about the resolution to all the Jack Crusher red door stuff. I just don’t see how this is going to be something good. Especially with this also being tied to inheriting superpowers from Picard… Delaying any sort of reveal about this until the very end of the Season, also doesn’t exactly fill me with much confidence. If it doesn’t suck after all, this will be the first Season of STP I’ll actually rewatch.