Star Trek: Picard brings nostalgia porn and muddled plotting in “Vox”

We begin the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Picard season 3 in the middle of Jack’s therapy session with Deanna Troi. We quickly learn that the vines and flowers in Jack’s nightmares (daydreams?) are a memory of an arboretum he visited as a child. They’re also metaphorical: Jack feels himself to be part of a larger collective, but missing that link to the greater whole. He isn’t ready to open the RED DOOR quite yet, though. Conveniently, Troi is able to peek into the depths of Jack’s mind and to see the thing that he isn’t ready for: Jack has a Borg cube lodged deep in his brain! Or rather, Jack inherited some leftover Borg bio-tech from Jean-Luc.

It seems that while possessing Jean-Luc (née Locutus), the Borg using entirely organic technology, rather than the traditional Seven of Nine-style implants. When Jean-Luc was de-assimilated, Starfleet removed the technological augmentations, but missed an organic component. It’s this component that let Picard maintain his connection to the Borg Collective, as a receiver of sorts. Jack is somehow the equal and opposite to Jean-Luc; Jack possesses the ability to transmit commands into the minds and bodies of the receivers. It’s unclear how exactly this worked…are nanoprobes sexually transmitted?

According to Dr. Crusher, “no one has heard from the Borg in a decade.” It seems that no one in the universe remembers the Borg showing up in the beginning/end of last season, or the Borg Queen/Jurati formally joining the Federation. Maybe those Borg were somehow out of sync with the prime timeline, and not the regular Borg of the era? I’m not sure. But Jack decides that he needs to find the current Queen and runs off in a stolen shuttle to seek answers.

The only answer he seems to get is assimilation. I’m not certain why the Borg even needed Jack. It makes sense that the Changelings might have an interest in Jack’s Borg genetics, but shouldn’t the Borg already have whatever technology they created? Oh, and it seems the Borg and Changelings have been working together throughout the events of the season.

The Borg and the Changelings: a match made in space hell

Before the season began, Changelings stole Picard’s body from Daystrom and rewrote the genetics of every ensign who ever used a transporter. The Changelings are using Borg tech to attack the Federation, and the Borg are using Changeling espionage to get closer to a Federation that thinks they’re all long gone. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. There are some interesting parallels between the Borg and Changeling societies, but all we need to know is that they both hate the Federation.

Once the Borg/Changeling infiltration takes over every Starfleet member under the age of 40, it’s up to the Next Generation crew to hightail it out of the Titan and onto a shuttle. All of the non-TNG characters are quickly removed from the equation: Geordi’s daughters are compromised by the Borg/Changelings, and Shaw, Raffi and Seven are left on the Titan. The TNG crew make a beeline to the Fleet Museum where they hope to find a ship that isn’t connected to the big Fleet-wide intranet. They arrive, and we finally get the moment that the whole season has been building toward: The NCC-1701 D in Space Dock. Everyone takes a well-deserved break (what impending doom?) and waxes nostalgic about the old Enterprise.

After all of the mystery and hinting about Jack throughout the season, the “big reveal” feels rushed, and a bit lazy. We had a pretty good guess that it’d be something to do with the Borg, but once it’s revealed, it feels like the least interesting possible outcome. You really have to be willing to say “OK, sure, that’s what’s going on…” It makes a certain degree of sense, but they never fully flesh it out.

That being said, I am absolutely here for the nostalgia porn. A special shout out is deserved for the explanation that Geordi has been spending his twilight years restoring the Enterprise in his garage like it’s a vintage Camero. We get the “Enterprise slowly leaving space-dock” shot, the old bridge, Geordi and Data at the helm, and Picard hitting all of the high notes: “Engage!” “Make it so.” (But no tea.)

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