Summary[]
The Synths are building a transmitter at Coppelius Station, in order to summon an intergalactic synthetic civilization that would supposedly come to eradicate all organic life in the galaxy. Narek proceeds to the Borg cube where he meets with his sister and receives explosives to destroy the transmitter. When he leaves, Elnor follows him. On La Sirena, Raffi and Rios manage to repair the intermix chamber of the ship with the device "that fixes things" given to them by Saga. Narek shows up and tries to convince them to join him and blow up the transmitter. Raffi attempts in vain to contact Picard, which supports Narek's claim. Even though Elnor remains mistrustful, they head for Coppelius Station, with Narek as a "prisoner" and a grenade disguised as a football.
In the meantime, Jurati has freed Picard, and they return to La Sirena. Soong discovers in Saga's memories that Sutra killed Saga, with inadvertent help of Narek. Picard manages to take off with La Sirena but he has no idea how to delay the Romulan fleet until Starfleet arrives. On the Borg cube, Narissa has detected and targeted La Sirena, but Seven of Nine fights and eventually kills her, thereby taking revenge for Hugh. The transmitter is ready to be activated when the angry Soong steps forward and deactivates Sutra. Soji takes over the task. Rios prepares the grenade in his football to destroy the beacon, but Soji catches it and hurls it away. The "orchids" that attack the Romulan fleet in orbit buy Picard some time.
Jurati comes up with the idea to use the "thing" to project multiple copies of La Sirena to distract the Romulans. The Romulans begin to fire on the holograms. When the real ship is hit as well, the holoemitter fails. Just as Oh gives the order to resume the attack on Coppelius Station, Riker appears with a fleet of Starfleet vessels and demands that the Romulans stand down. When his neurological symptoms worsen, Picard asks Jurati to give him an injection that allows him to continue to talk to Soji, although it will kill him. He begs Soji to make a choice because that's what being alive is about, and she finally shuts down the transmitter just as some machine is about to come through a wormhole.
Picard is beamed down to the surface of Coppelius where he dies. While Rios, Seven, Elnor and Raffi are mourning his death, Picard finds himself in what seems like the afterlife where he meets Data. It is actually a quantum reconstruction created by Maddox from the android's memories. Picard is in this place because his consciousness too is on a transfer. When Picard is ready to be revived, Data asks him a final favor: to shut down his simulation. Picard wakes up in a precise reconstruction of his old body, based on the golem that Soong was building and that he adapted with the help of Jurati. He returns to La Sirena together with Soji, Jurati, Seven, Raffi, Rios and Elnor.
Errors and Explanations[]
Ex Astris Scientia[]
Nitpicking[]
- Bernd Schneider: When they arrived in orbit of the planet in the first part, one orchid drained La Sirena of all power and brought down the ship with ease. Now La Sirena, with the handicapped Picard at the helm, flies through a whole flowerbed and nothing happens. The orchids may be weakened or distracted because of the weapon fire, still it doesn't seem to be a wise choice not to try to evade them. Ther may not be enough room for La Sirena to go around.
- Rios, Raffi and Elnor ostensibly arrive at Coppelius Station with Narek as a prisoner. Why is Narek still free to run around? What will become of him anyway? At some point, he simply vanishes.
- What happened to starship classes? Starfleet now consists of hundreds of ships of the same type as the Zheng He, and not a single other one? There are slight differences between the ships, but overall it's not only very boring but also very unrealistic. This could have been done to ease component supply and compatibility issues.
- Riker has been out of Starfleet for about eight or nine years. It is unrealistic that he would be given such a big commission in the first place, and that even if he can skip command fitness tests, he could familiarize himself with the protocols, the crew and the ship(s) in just one day. Actually, according to the dialogue in the episode Nepenthe, he is on the active reserve list, meaning he would – theoretically - already be familiar with the protocols, the crew and the ship.
- I mused in last week's review that all 218 Romulan ships must be manned with, or at least commanded by, fanatics, who would not mind attacking a peaceful planet. But considering they have to be fanatics, why is it that they simply stand down when Riker's fleet arrives? They weren't expecting Starfleet/Federation intervention! The Treaty of Algeron or even the superiority of the enemy realistically wouldn't stop them, especially as the Ch'khalagu emerges from the wormhole, seemingly confirming the worst fears from the Admonition. And even if Oh becomes reasonable all of sudden, would that really apply to all of her people? Can you see any of them carrying on without her?
- The wormhole opens and presumably the "advanced race of Synths" sends something that the Zhat Vash would identify as the Ch'khalagu. Then Soji terminates the connection and the Ch'khalagu gets crushed. Wouldn't that alert the "advanced race of Synths"? Isn't that something to be very worried about? It might convince them to stay away!
- The Federation mobilizes a huge fleet in no time for the mission to Coppelius and a possible battle with the Romulans. But they can't spare a single of these ships to stay there for one or two days and investigate in more detail what has happened on the planet (a new Federation protectorate after all)? The ships were probably withdrawn at the request of the Synths.
- Not even Riker himself would want to stay? Even though it may be on purpose that Picard does not mention to his friend that he is dying, Riker himself doesn't express his wish to meet him either. He probably wants to get back home, to ensure the safety of his family.
- So the Federation lifted the ban on Syths. For what reasons? The Synths may not have been responsible for the attack on Mars but aren't the very events in this episode just more proof for the skeptics that they are dangerous? Proof of the Romulan involvement in the attack on Mars could have prompted improved safety protocols.
- Jurati is not arrested for murdering Bruce Maddox? Or is La Sirena taking her to Deep Space 12, as originally intended? I doubt it. The Federation could have taken the mitigating circumstances, such as the mental manipulation by Commodore Oh – aka General Nedar - into account, and decided that Jurati’s guilt over the death was punishment enough.
| Picard Season 1 |
| Remembrance I Maps and Legends I The End is the Beginning I Absolute Candor I Stardust City Rag I The Impossible Box I Nepenthe I Broken Pieces I Et in Arcadia Ego Part 1 I Et in Arcadia Ego Part 2 |