Star Trek Picard Episode 1 Remembrance review, Spoilers and Speculations.

Star Trek Picard Episode 1 Remembrance review

Spoilers ahead, so beware
  So Jean Luc Picard is back on our screens with this return to the The Next Generation era of Star Trek. Set after the destruction of the Romulan homeworld which led to the creation of the Kelvin timeline, this return to the prime timeline is a welcome one, which feels to fans like me who grew up watching TNG, like the return of a dear old friend, or even two as this also marks the return of Sir Patrick Stewart after such a long time away from the role.
  And time has moved on for Picard, no longer a Captain or even an Admiral, he’s now returned to his family vineyard in California, I mean, France, and is now living out his retirement with his beloved dog, named number one, and a husband and wife Romulan couple, Laris and and Zhaban who act as his housekeepers in thanks for his efforts in rescuing the Romulan people from the supernova that destroyed their homeworld.
  But all is not well as the episode opens up with Picard dreaming of an attack on Mars while playing Poker with Data in Ten Forward on the Enterprise D, an attack that happened decades after that ships destruction. Meanwhile a young woman named Dahj is celebrating her new job with her boyfriend when three men in black beam in and kill him and attack her, she suddenly overpowers them, much to her own surprise.
  Picard is preparing for an interview with a news station, the first he’s agreed to in years, which goes from bad to worse as the journalist tears into Picard for trying to save Romulan lives and renays on her promise to not ask about why he left starfleet. Picard makes his points clear again and ends the interview.
The injured Dahj shows up asking for his help having fled from the attack in her home, somehow knowing he can help her and she can trust him, only to go missing the next day, leaving behind her distinct necklace. Picard quickly makes some inquiries and realises she bears a striking resemblance to a woman in a painting Data painted some thirty years ago, a painting whose title makes Picard believe the young woman is Data’s daughter. Artificial lifeforms like androids now called synths, have a very bad reputation after an attack on Mars, and once the two reunite, she is very shocked at the revelation about her.
  The pair are quickly attacked by a trio of men in black, much like the attack on Dahj in her own home, with more beaming in and out to get a better line of sight on her. She quickly manages to defend against the attack, unmasking one as a Romulan but is seemingly killed in an explosion when some acid is spat on both herself and an energy weapon she had taken.
  Picard awakes the next day in his home with his Romulan friends looking over him who tell him the police dropped him off and said nothing of any attack or anyone else being present. Traveling to the Daystrom Institute Picard makes further inquiries with Dr Jurati and finds that Dahj’s very existence as a flesh and blood android is believed impossible without some of Datas technology being used, at least a thousand years away from being made possible. But on showing Dahjs necklace to Jurati, she reveals that a method of cloning does exist that would create such androids, but they would be made in pairs. Picard releases that this means Dahj has a sister, out there, somewhere.
  We cut to space as a Romulan ship docks in a larger facility and Narek, a member of the crew meets up with Dr Soji, identical in all ways to Dahj but seems to know nothing of her true heritage. The two make some casual conversation with Narek commenting on her necklace, which Soji mentions was one of her two made by her father, one for her, one for her twin sister.
  As the two continue their rather friendly chat, which even seems flirtatious, the camera pulls away to reveal they are inside an apparently damaged Borg Cube.

  And that is the first introduction to the new series, very much setting the scene for future episodes and showing the way things have changed for the Prime Timeline which in many ways seems to be for the worst.
  The attack on Mars has led to a ban on Synths and anti Romulan sentiment is at an all time high, almost bordering on racism judging from the journalist behaviour, an attitude that seems far removed from the Utopian society that the Federation is supposed to represent. This just hints that the world of Star Trek has gone down a darker route, which will most likely be developed more as the series progresses.
  As it is the show has beautiful cinematography lending it a far more movie like feel then the TNG series ever had, with far more use of CGI for special effects and some rather interesting makeup choices, Dahjs boyfriend being one example while the Romulans have a far more subtle look to their makeup and hairstyles.
  It’s also worth noting the performances are all good, there’s not a bad performance from anyone, Picard is still very much a man of his convictions and morales and Patrick Stewart simply never misses a step, in fact you can quite easily believe that Pciard has been living his life while TNG has been off the air. While Brent Spiners' appearances as Data show he’s never lost the ability to play the android, every mannerism is still there, from the inquisitive nature, the intelligence and the naivety.
  That said the age of both men is obvious, Patrick Stewart is almost 80, and they thankfully don’t try to pretend he's still in his fifties and able to run around like someone much younger then he was in TNG. Brent Spiners age does show up through all the Data makeup and the effect can be somewhat odd ast times, especially in closeups, but I’m willing to pass that off as part of the dream state. Data did visibly age in the show and movies, it’s most likely that Data could “age” to simulate being more human, and in any case he most likely shows up aged in Picards dreams to show what he might have looked like had he not died. His death was one of Picard's greatest regrets.
  Dahj is played superbly, going from damsel to distress to confused badass on the run, to questioning her own humanity and existence once Picard explains his theory to her quite flawlessly, making me want to see more of this character as she learns about herself. I do hope we will somehow see more of her, despite her apparent demise, and that her sister is every bit as well played out regardless of what might happen.
  Despite having grown up on the show as a kid, and having the TNG DVD boxsets I’ve not rewatched the show or done any kind of prepwork in that regard, I’ve wanted to go in with the most fresh eyes a fan can have. I still haven’t seen the last TNG movie, Nemesis, and to date it remains the only Trek movie I have not seen. And despite not having brushed up on my Trek lore, I still found the opening episode very easy to get into, even if there is a bit of Treknobabble in a couple of scenes, this should not put off anyone who has never seen TNG or any other Trek show.
  This episode is very much the setup for the tone and overall plot of the series to come as well as reintroducing us to Picard and the world of Star Trek in general, it’s both a great introduction for new watchers and a warm welcome back to long term fans, and I for one cannot wait to see just how they flesh this world out further and develop it, and what twists the story may take.

Speculations
  There is as with any good TV show, always going to be some tidbits left for us to muse over, plot threads left dangling to pull us back for later episodes, and plenty to speculate about. Here’s some of the things that got my speculation hat on.

Where is Lore?
We were all speculating when we saw the soong type android body, unassembled in a draw being viewed by Picard and Dr Jurati, and wondering just which of the three androids we knew about that it could be.
  We all knew it could not be Data, he was right next to an explosion that he caused to save Picard, which left just two possibilities, and as it turned out it was B-4, whose less developed positronic brain was revealed to be unable to process Data’s downloaded copy of his own memories, an act meant to help his older brother.
  It’s not outright stated as such, but it would seem that the artificial life forms, the androids or synths or synthetics such as F 8 (that we’ve so far only seen in the trailers) that were made by the Daystrom Institute may be based on B-4 as no mention of any sort is made of Lore or any other android beyond Data. Even Picard doesn’t address this issue.
  If they are based on B-4 that might explain why they attacked Mars as they may have been manipulated by some external agency to perform such an atrocity, and not been able to prevent or resist such manipulations.
  And with Lore being missing it makes me wonder about Lal and even Juliana Tainer, the two other Soong type androids we know about. Lal beings Datas short lived daughter in one of the most heart wrenching episodes of TNG ever, and Juliana an android with the personality and memories of Datas never before known late mother, who had no idea what she really was.
  Presumably Juliana is still alive (her actress certainly is and is slightly younger than Patrick Stewart) and living the long life Soong had programmed her to have before expiring, still unaware of the truth about herself. Lal on the other hand... We just don’t know. I’d like to think she had been buried in some fashion as Picard had refused to allow her to be seperated from her father. But it’s not outside the realm of possibilities that she’s lying in a drawer somewhere like her late uncle.
  Of course it is possible that Starfleet has Lore under lock and key somewhere and because of his nature have never released him in any form, assembled or not to anyone for fear of him either getting loose again, or even worse, accidentally creating androids with his key flaws.
  And do we know for certain that Data’s memories did fail to work in B-4? That could just be a lie.

Where is Bruce Maddox? And how did he make Data’s daughters?
  Presumably he is behind the creation of Dahj and her twin sister, he might even be in their memories as their father. Soji did state that her necklace was made by her father, and as that seems to symbolise the sisters it’s possible that Maddox is involved and may have actually raised them, so long as he isn’t a red herring,
  I say red herring as his actor’s IMDB page does not list him being on the show, of course that doesn’t mean anything as they might be keeping his inclusion as a big secret for a later reveal and reunion and therefore haven’t released and details about him.
  As for how he made the girls, it’s most likely he managed to finally live out his dream of disassembling Data and picking his brain, by doing just that to B-4, who had Data’s memories after all, which would include knowledge of the painting “daughter” who Dahj and Soji both resemble and making them in that image to honour Data.
  And if the idea that the girls are made from Data’s positronic brains technology is true, that might explain why Dahj has flashes of Picard and knowledge he will help her, Data’s memories may very well be buried in their minds, trying to guide them from beyond a digital grave. Picard believes that beings like Data are alive, and that would extend to his daughters as Picard did fight for both Data and Lal to be allowed not just to live, but to live together.
  But where he is and if he’s even still alive or even playing an active role in the series, is anyone’s guess.

How is Picard getting all these prophetic dreams?
  Ok, that is stretching it a bit as we’ve only seen him have two dreams, and only one was in any way prophetic. First we see Picard in civilian wear playing poker in the Enterprise D’s Ten Forward bar, with Data wearing a uniform introduced after the destruction of that vessel, as it pulls up outside of Mars as it gets attacked.
  This actually symbolises loss and regret and Picards current situation, he’s now a civilian, and he’s watching helplessly at the attack on Mars, as powerless to prevent it as he was to prevent the death of Data, or the destruction of his ship. Perhaps a part of him thinks that had he saved his ship, he might have been able to prevent Data’s sacrifice and the attack on Mars, and that desire manifests in this dream.
  In any case, he certainly blames himself for all three events, but this is just pure regret, while his second dream is very different. He’s now wearing the TNG era uniform, watching Data as he stands in his vineyard, painting a picture of a woman that he had given him and quickly realises that he has it storage when he sees a different version hanging in his home. This is simply his subconscious at work in his tired brain feeding him a very important fact he had missed earlier.
  But it does have similarities, Data did something in the past, represented by the old uniforms they’re both wearing, and that has an effect on the present, represented by the Vineyard that Picard now lives in. The painting being unfinished is simply his subconscious telling him he needs to investigate, and even the dialogue reflects this.
“Would you like to finish it Captain?”
”I don’t know how.”
“That is not true sir.”
  It would be interesting to see if he has anymore though. He’s clearly got a lot of issues to work out before the series end.

Did Dahj really die?
  Dahj is last seen having beaten at least three Romulans in hand to hand combat before having acid spat at her, quickly burning through her clothes and her skin and the energy weapon she had taken, compromising its shell and making it explode while she was screaming in pain from the acid.
  She’s dead, right?
  And that seems very, very odd that the Romulans, who from the get go were making every effort to take her alive, would resort to that. Even odder that they didn’t just beam her away in her apartment or even anywhere else she might have happened to be. Instead they went with the bag-her-and-backhand-her-approach rather than the magic off button hypospray or a weapon set on stun, and we all saw how that turned out for them.
  This possibly means she had some sort of anti transporter tech built into her or the federation has such tech built into certain areas to prevent such abductions. Possibly this is only one way and still allows people to beam in wherever they want, but that frankly doesn’t make sense from a security point. So it’s more likely that Dahj had some kind of protection to prevent that happening to her.
  So, caught in an explosion while having acid eating away at her, she must be dead, no one could survive that? Well, if Picard is right, and we’ve no reason to believe he’s not, just how resilient is an android? How much of her is organic, and how much isn’t? And if the Romulans wanted her alive so badly, why resort to killing her?
  Well, the rifle explosion almost certainly wasn’t intended, that was just a side effect of the acid attack (words I really wish I’d never had to write in this day and age) and we do know Romulan technology is on a similar level to the Federation, that must include medical tech as we have seen dermal regenerators used in Trek, even in this episode. It’s possible the acid was just there to incapacitate Dahj long enough to allow transportation to a Romulan ship or facility where they could study her, and also heal her if needs be.
  Or just outright dissect her, which is an even more gruesome thought I’ve just had, but I wouldn’t put it past the most deceitful members of the Romulans.
  Or she could have simply just died. But this is Star Trek and dead characters have came back from the dead before.
  But there is one more thing.

Why was Picard not taken to hospital?
  After the attack on the roof by the Romulan squad, Picard wakes up with not a scratch on him despite how close he was to the explosion. The police apparently taking him straight home to the care of his Romulan housekeepers and friends.
  This seems very odd given the circumstances as an explosion would show up on sensors that the Federation is bound to have on it’s capital planet and who takes a person whose been in or near to an explosion anywhere but a hospital? Especially a person like Picard who you need specialized clearance to track, suggesting he’s still a very important figure.
  I suspect that the Romulans at the scene of the crime, dead or otherwise, were beamed away, along with Picard and most likely Dahj as well, treated, then either returned to the scene of the explosion, or taken back to the care of his Romulan friends.
  Are they perhaps in on something, or were they threatened into staying silent? They certainly didn’t try to stop Picard from continuing after such a horrible attack.
  I do have to say that I am just a little suspicious of Picards new friends, as Romulans they are in the perfect position to spy on him as members of his household. But as he is retired it’s hard to see how they might benefit from being near him. I can see them being accused of wrongdoing at some point as clearly a part of Romulan society is up to something here, but that could be misdirection.
  And in any case, I quite like them.