Star Trek Picard Episode 5 review Stardust City Rag
Star Trek Picard Episode 5 review Stardust City Rag
Star Trek Picard Episode 5 review Stardust City Rag
Spoilers ahead, so beware.
In now true Star Trek Picard tradition, we open up with a flashback to the past, which in this shows case, is the past, but is still the future. And we catch up with Icheb. Now a Starfleet officer and in a lot of trouble as he is brutally experimented upon to steal his Borg implants, with his left eye being the first thing we see taken out, but presumably not the first thing removed.
He’s also fully awake and clearly not a willing participant. Seven thankfully shows up, killing all his torturers and tries to get him upright, but Icheb begs her to end his life. Regrettably, tearfully, she euthanizes him and holds him in her arms. “I’m so sorry, my child.”
We return to the present and Maddox is indeed alive and in trouble on Freecloud. Turns out he had borrowed money for a new lab from a legitimate business woman, Bjayzl, only for it to be destroyed. As she serves him a drink of Tranya after having had one of her goons (a Beta Annari called Mr Vup) bring him to see her (rather then killing him like she first wanted to). He reveals he suspects it was the Tal Shiar who destroyed it with some sort of compound. Showing she cannot be trusted at all, Maddox quickly succumbs to the poison Bjayzl served him and falls to the ground while she ponders the difficulty of dealing with the Tal Shiar.
Seven and Picard spend a bit of time in his holographic study and we see how much twenty years has changed Seven. She’s more relaxed, casual in her speech and most mannerisms, but still refers to herself in terms of functioning when asked how she’s feeling. And she likes bourbon which she can down in one like a pro, surprising Picard.
There's some ambiguity as to whether they really do know each other by any means other than reputation, but neither address any previous meetings or even discuss their ex borg status.
Seven fills Picard in on some of the action the Fenris Rangers take and how fruitless their task seems, and that there is no law where they operate. Vigilantes. In some regards, they seem to have taken on aspects of the Federation that the Federation has chosen not to continue with. She says she can be dropped off on Freecloud given they have dealings there.
As Seven begins to walk away to leave she turns and asks Picard what he’s looking for, and takes an interest in what Picard has to say, takes another drink and sits down to listen.
Raffi is looking over a profile on a young male resident of Freecloud while Rios takes her by surprise by loudly walking up towards her. The two discuss their new passenger and Rios wonders if Seven and Picard know each other. Raffis doubts it and points out that Picard and Seven have a shared experience as being ex Borg Drones, something Rios had forgotten about in the case of Picard but clearly had known of Seven herself, if not her proper designation but hadn’t put two and two together when he saw her in the flesh. “99? 11?” he wonders. “The Ex Borg Fenris Ranger from the delta quadrant.”
Agnes is busy relaxing on her bed watching a holographic recording of her and Maddox in happier times. Turns out Maddox is something of a baker, although he replicated all the ingredients, he might be a bad baker as Agnes jokes that he burns them. There’s a lot of couples talk and the recording ends with a kiss, and we learn something she’s never admitted to in previous episodes.
As the ship enters Freecloud each crew member is targeted with a specialised ad, high tea for Picard, AI for Agnes, ship repairs for Rios and drugs for Raffi, all except Elnor. Raffi is able to look over the planet's information message boards and finds some information about how Maddox is to be traded to the Tal Shiar courtesy of Bjayzl. On hearing that name Seven interrupts the crew as they discuss their rescue plan for Maddox, revealing she’s wanted for her crimes of kidnapping ex borgs to strip them of their parts and offering herself as a means of a trade to get Maddox back. A plan is quickly formed, and everyone gets ready for some undercover action, except Agnes who will remain on board the ship to operate the transporter and Raffi whose found the reason she was coming to frecloud and while she does help prepare the plan (she does the lionshare of the planning) she still leaves to go off and do her own thing.
Rios beams down to the planet dressed like a pimp, but is in fact disguised as a “Facer”, Raffi has faked a profile for him which makes him famous but not too famous. None of which he’s comfortable with,and when asked if he really is one by Elnor, he denies it outright. He makes contact with Mr Vop and manages to arrange a meeting for Picard and company who want to exchange their “prisoner” Seven for Maddox. Seven is especially valuable as an ex borg as she has so much more of their technology still inside her body. Picard poses as a gangster in his own right with a French Accent so thick he could pass for a cast member of “Allo Allo” while decked all in black and with an eyepatch to boot (one that covers the eye that wasn’t covered with Borg tech when he was assimilated) while Elnor acts as his bodyguard and is under strict instructions to not say anything.
Rios makes contact with Vup and manages to setup a meeting between Picard and Bjayzl.
Raffi meanwhile visits a fertility clinic where she's tracked down the man whose profile she was looking at earlier, and her reasons for wanting to come to Freecloud become clear. He is her son, estranged after the Synth attack on Mars, and he still harbours bad feelings towards her and wonders if she's been tracking him or hunting him down.
Her attempt to reconnect fails as he clearly wants nothing to do with her, and wants even less to do with her when she defends her actions regarding her belief that the Mars attack was more then it seemed. Her drug problems are mentioned and she points out she is clean now but the whole reunion continues to go downhill.
If there is one good thing it’s that Raffi meets her son's partner, a young Romulan woman who is heavily pregnant. Unlike Raffis son, his partner is civil towards Raffi as is Rafif to her and they part on better terms, with Raffi wishing them all the best for their unborn daughter.
The situation in the club gets tense once Seven is unhooded, it turns out she and Bjayzl have history, she's even refers to Seven as Anaika, showing just how intimately she seems to know her. Seven breaks free of her trick handcuffs and overpowers her tormentor demanding the bodyguards drop their weapons. Elnor assumes possession of them and shows he knows how to use guns to give stage directions. It turns out that one of the many abducted and tortured ex borgs victims of hers, including Icheb.
Agnes is meanwhile panicking alone on the ship and the EMH shows up to ask what the issue is. Lacking any real tact here and her not wanting him around anyhow, he doesn’t make much headway and when Rios comes on the comms the EMH tries to make him aware of Agnes issues but is turned off for his trouble. Rios advises Agnes that they might need beaming out.
While Seven and the boss talk things out with Picard trying to calm things down, Vup tries to take them out with a hidden weapon of his own, but wasn’t reading the room as Rios who's stayed behind after being “dismissed” by Picard shoots the alien bodyguard and tries his own form of diplomacy on Seven, pointing out that killing Bjayzl will get bounties on their heads that Picard and Elnor won’t survive, and that as Seven has found her before she can find her again.
They beam away with Maddox and Agnes helps him to sick bay.
Picard and Seven spend a few minutes talking in the transporter room, and she gives him her contact details in case he ever needs a vigilante. She asks if she can have a pair of phaser rifles and then finally the two talk about their Borg experience. When asked, Picard says he has regained his humanity, but not all of it.
Picards speach to Seven is for naught however as she beams back into the same club they just left, she’d seen the hope in his eyes, and couldn’t take that away so pretended to be pacified. She takes out the bodyguards and has one last, drawn out conversation with Bjayzl before killing her, avenging Icheb and the others and then taking out her backup as they arrive literally seconds too late.
Picard and Maddox catch up in sickbay and Maddox breaks down in tears when he learns of Dahjs death and admits where Soji is. When asked why Maddox states it was to look into the truth about the synth ban and that he believes the Romulans and the Federation have people hunting the girls. Agnes advises Picard to leave as Maddox still needs rest.
Rios and Picard realise they now need to go to Romulan space. Rios points out this has increased Rios fee, and they have a “Stowaway” and Picard goes to check on Raffi.
Maddox and Agnes talk privately, he tells her more about the girls and how all three of them, Soong, himself and Agnes have made such a breakthrough. Agnes is in tears herself and tells Maddox she wishes she didn’t know the things she knew, the things they told her. The EMH turns on and asks what the issue is with her psychiatric emergency, before releasing what she is doing and is turned off before he can stop her cuings off the medical treatment Maddox needs, killing him in a slow and painful manner.
Speculations, observations, theories and other things
The music played by the pianist in the club is the same as the music played in the video game Bioshock Infinite. A variation of this is heard during Ichebs torture scene.
By far and away this is the fastest paced episode so far of Picard, with no scenes set on the Borg cube.
Neither Icheb or Maddox are played by their original actors. In Maddox's case the original actor Brian Brophy has a day job as director of theater arts in the California institute of technology, and was presumably too busy to make time for the show. But in the case of Icheb and the actor Manu Intiraymi… There have been various allegations about him being rude to convention goers over the years, and some of his tweets have been in support of Kevin Spacey in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations made against him. There’s also long standing allegations that he harassed Jeri Ryan herself while on the Voyager set. I’ve not been able to verify much of this beyond screen shots of the tweets so this may remain a mystery as to why he wasn’t asked to resume his role. It should be pointed out while there are tweets and other social media messages complaining about his behaviour at cons there are others supporting him and praising him for good behaviour at cons as well. Memory Alpha also does not go into any detail on his profile about any of these allegations and the actor himself has so far only posted a tweet “thanks for the love” and a couple of screen grabs of Icheb on Voyager episodes, with confirmation that it wasn’t him in the episode.
No mention of Chakotay is ever made in this episode or the relationship he and Seven shared, or indeed if he is still alive. But given he was a Maquis he might very well have joined up with the Fenris rangers as they seem to have had similar goals.
Maddox suspects his lab was totally destroyed by the Tal Shiar with a molecular solyvent, what he describes seems similar if not the same to the acid attacks used on Dahj.
Elnor is the only person we don’t see get an ad sent to him Seven was off camera so might have had an ad sent her way and who knows what that would have entailed given how customised they were.
Previously, I’d had my suspiscions that Raffi just wanted to go to Freecloud to get lost and wasted, but here we see her true reasons.
Raffi claims to have gotten clean, this might shed a different light on the vaping we saw in her first appearance as that might have been her trying to wean herself off harder drugs. Her stopping Rios from smoking on his own bridge would indicate that she is cleaning up her act, or that smoking was never one of her vices and she doesn’t tolerate it.
Seven is referred to by her original name, suggesting for a time she may have tried to live her life under her old human identity before something made her resume her shortened Borg Designation. Possibly that might have been the events leading up to Ichebs death.
The reptilian character Mr Vup is said to be able to smell a lie, amongst other things. While unlikely to be a reference to Wolverine, in X-Men Origins Wolverine, Logan stated he could smell lies too.
Seven is clearly famous, she’s “that Fenris ranger” as Rios puts it. One has to wonder if Icheb had similar fame?
It’s also not mentioned if she still needs to regenerate in an alcove or if she can actually sleep like a regular human.
Freecloud seems to be like the Vegas Strip in some regards, and while we can see Quark has a bar there, somehow Mr Mot, Picards personal barber on the Enterprise D has also got his own hair emporium there. Now if only Garak had his own fashion outlet there.
Raffis son taking a Romulan woman as his lover and mother of his child goes to show he either harbours no ill will to the Romulans or at least doesn’t hold this Romulan responsible for the actions of her Government.
Sevens revenge is fast, and leaves no chance of the bad guy returning from the grave. Disintegration is very hard to come back from. Everyone else she either stuns or has the kill setting on a lower level. That said, Picard was one thought killed by a disrupter that actually transported him to another ship. Very unlikely that Seven did that here.
How on earth did they come up with a name like Bjayzl? Fun fact, Trek connection, the actress portraying her, Necar Zadegan, currently stars alongside Scott Bakula on NCIS New Orleans. The drink she serves, Tranya was first introduced in TOS episode “the corbomite maneuver.”
Evidently Rios has no emergency transporter hologram, nor does his ship computer seem to be able to beam him up from voice commands. Which is a bit odd really in any Trek series.
Both sisters were indeed talking to anAI when they thought they were talking to their mother. This AI apparently could “activate” them when they were in danger, and presumably was able to send Soji off to sleep and seemingly forget about certain issues.
Whatever it is Oh and her people have shown Agnes, it was clearly enough to make her feel death was the only option for Maddox, this could be due to coercion, or even brainwashing. Whatever the reason, she clearly was genuinely upset about her actions.
Spoilers ahead, so beware.
In now true Star Trek Picard tradition, we open up with a flashback to the past, which in this shows case, is the past, but is still the future. And we catch up with Icheb. Now a Starfleet officer and in a lot of trouble as he is brutally experimented upon to steal his Borg implants, with his left eye being the first thing we see taken out, but presumably not the first thing removed.
He’s also fully awake and clearly not a willing participant. Seven thankfully shows up, killing all his torturers and tries to get him upright, but Icheb begs her to end his life. Regrettably, tearfully, she euthanizes him and holds him in her arms. “I’m so sorry, my child.”
We return to the present and Maddox is indeed alive and in trouble on Freecloud. Turns out he had borrowed money for a new lab from a legitimate business woman, Bjayzl, only for it to be destroyed. As she serves him a drink of Tranya after having had one of her goons (a Beta Annari called Mr Vup) bring him to see her (rather then killing him like she first wanted to). He reveals he suspects it was the Tal Shiar who destroyed it with some sort of compound. Showing she cannot be trusted at all, Maddox quickly succumbs to the poison Bjayzl served him and falls to the ground while she ponders the difficulty of dealing with the Tal Shiar.
Seven and Picard spend a bit of time in his holographic study and we see how much twenty years has changed Seven. She’s more relaxed, casual in her speech and most mannerisms, but still refers to herself in terms of functioning when asked how she’s feeling. And she likes bourbon which she can down in one like a pro, surprising Picard.
There's some ambiguity as to whether they really do know each other by any means other than reputation, but neither address any previous meetings or even discuss their ex borg status.
Seven fills Picard in on some of the action the Fenris Rangers take and how fruitless their task seems, and that there is no law where they operate. Vigilantes. In some regards, they seem to have taken on aspects of the Federation that the Federation has chosen not to continue with. She says she can be dropped off on Freecloud given they have dealings there.
As Seven begins to walk away to leave she turns and asks Picard what he’s looking for, and takes an interest in what Picard has to say, takes another drink and sits down to listen.
Raffi is looking over a profile on a young male resident of Freecloud while Rios takes her by surprise by loudly walking up towards her. The two discuss their new passenger and Rios wonders if Seven and Picard know each other. Raffis doubts it and points out that Picard and Seven have a shared experience as being ex Borg Drones, something Rios had forgotten about in the case of Picard but clearly had known of Seven herself, if not her proper designation but hadn’t put two and two together when he saw her in the flesh. “99? 11?” he wonders. “The Ex Borg Fenris Ranger from the delta quadrant.”
Agnes is busy relaxing on her bed watching a holographic recording of her and Maddox in happier times. Turns out Maddox is something of a baker, although he replicated all the ingredients, he might be a bad baker as Agnes jokes that he burns them. There’s a lot of couples talk and the recording ends with a kiss, and we learn something she’s never admitted to in previous episodes.
As the ship enters Freecloud each crew member is targeted with a specialised ad, high tea for Picard, AI for Agnes, ship repairs for Rios and drugs for Raffi, all except Elnor. Raffi is able to look over the planet's information message boards and finds some information about how Maddox is to be traded to the Tal Shiar courtesy of Bjayzl. On hearing that name Seven interrupts the crew as they discuss their rescue plan for Maddox, revealing she’s wanted for her crimes of kidnapping ex borgs to strip them of their parts and offering herself as a means of a trade to get Maddox back. A plan is quickly formed, and everyone gets ready for some undercover action, except Agnes who will remain on board the ship to operate the transporter and Raffi whose found the reason she was coming to frecloud and while she does help prepare the plan (she does the lionshare of the planning) she still leaves to go off and do her own thing.
Rios beams down to the planet dressed like a pimp, but is in fact disguised as a “Facer”, Raffi has faked a profile for him which makes him famous but not too famous. None of which he’s comfortable with,and when asked if he really is one by Elnor, he denies it outright. He makes contact with Mr Vop and manages to arrange a meeting for Picard and company who want to exchange their “prisoner” Seven for Maddox. Seven is especially valuable as an ex borg as she has so much more of their technology still inside her body. Picard poses as a gangster in his own right with a French Accent so thick he could pass for a cast member of “Allo Allo” while decked all in black and with an eyepatch to boot (one that covers the eye that wasn’t covered with Borg tech when he was assimilated) while Elnor acts as his bodyguard and is under strict instructions to not say anything.
Rios makes contact with Vup and manages to setup a meeting between Picard and Bjayzl.
Raffi meanwhile visits a fertility clinic where she's tracked down the man whose profile she was looking at earlier, and her reasons for wanting to come to Freecloud become clear. He is her son, estranged after the Synth attack on Mars, and he still harbours bad feelings towards her and wonders if she's been tracking him or hunting him down.
Her attempt to reconnect fails as he clearly wants nothing to do with her, and wants even less to do with her when she defends her actions regarding her belief that the Mars attack was more then it seemed. Her drug problems are mentioned and she points out she is clean now but the whole reunion continues to go downhill.
If there is one good thing it’s that Raffi meets her son's partner, a young Romulan woman who is heavily pregnant. Unlike Raffis son, his partner is civil towards Raffi as is Rafif to her and they part on better terms, with Raffi wishing them all the best for their unborn daughter.
The situation in the club gets tense once Seven is unhooded, it turns out she and Bjayzl have history, she's even refers to Seven as Anaika, showing just how intimately she seems to know her. Seven breaks free of her trick handcuffs and overpowers her tormentor demanding the bodyguards drop their weapons. Elnor assumes possession of them and shows he knows how to use guns to give stage directions. It turns out that one of the many abducted and tortured ex borgs victims of hers, including Icheb.
Agnes is meanwhile panicking alone on the ship and the EMH shows up to ask what the issue is. Lacking any real tact here and her not wanting him around anyhow, he doesn’t make much headway and when Rios comes on the comms the EMH tries to make him aware of Agnes issues but is turned off for his trouble. Rios advises Agnes that they might need beaming out.
While Seven and the boss talk things out with Picard trying to calm things down, Vup tries to take them out with a hidden weapon of his own, but wasn’t reading the room as Rios who's stayed behind after being “dismissed” by Picard shoots the alien bodyguard and tries his own form of diplomacy on Seven, pointing out that killing Bjayzl will get bounties on their heads that Picard and Elnor won’t survive, and that as Seven has found her before she can find her again.
They beam away with Maddox and Agnes helps him to sick bay.
Picard and Seven spend a few minutes talking in the transporter room, and she gives him her contact details in case he ever needs a vigilante. She asks if she can have a pair of phaser rifles and then finally the two talk about their Borg experience. When asked, Picard says he has regained his humanity, but not all of it.
Picards speach to Seven is for naught however as she beams back into the same club they just left, she’d seen the hope in his eyes, and couldn’t take that away so pretended to be pacified. She takes out the bodyguards and has one last, drawn out conversation with Bjayzl before killing her, avenging Icheb and the others and then taking out her backup as they arrive literally seconds too late.
Picard and Maddox catch up in sickbay and Maddox breaks down in tears when he learns of Dahjs death and admits where Soji is. When asked why Maddox states it was to look into the truth about the synth ban and that he believes the Romulans and the Federation have people hunting the girls. Agnes advises Picard to leave as Maddox still needs rest.
Rios and Picard realise they now need to go to Romulan space. Rios points out this has increased Rios fee, and they have a “Stowaway” and Picard goes to check on Raffi.
Maddox and Agnes talk privately, he tells her more about the girls and how all three of them, Soong, himself and Agnes have made such a breakthrough. Agnes is in tears herself and tells Maddox she wishes she didn’t know the things she knew, the things they told her. The EMH turns on and asks what the issue is with her psychiatric emergency, before releasing what she is doing and is turned off before he can stop her cuings off the medical treatment Maddox needs, killing him in a slow and painful manner.
Speculations, observations, theories and other things
The music played by the pianist in the club is the same as the music played in the video game Bioshock Infinite. A variation of this is heard during Ichebs torture scene.
By far and away this is the fastest paced episode so far of Picard, with no scenes set on the Borg cube.
Neither Icheb or Maddox are played by their original actors. In Maddox's case the original actor Brian Brophy has a day job as director of theater arts in the California institute of technology, and was presumably too busy to make time for the show. But in the case of Icheb and the actor Manu Intiraymi… There have been various allegations about him being rude to convention goers over the years, and some of his tweets have been in support of Kevin Spacey in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations made against him. There’s also long standing allegations that he harassed Jeri Ryan herself while on the Voyager set. I’ve not been able to verify much of this beyond screen shots of the tweets so this may remain a mystery as to why he wasn’t asked to resume his role. It should be pointed out while there are tweets and other social media messages complaining about his behaviour at cons there are others supporting him and praising him for good behaviour at cons as well. Memory Alpha also does not go into any detail on his profile about any of these allegations and the actor himself has so far only posted a tweet “thanks for the love” and a couple of screen grabs of Icheb on Voyager episodes, with confirmation that it wasn’t him in the episode.
No mention of Chakotay is ever made in this episode or the relationship he and Seven shared, or indeed if he is still alive. But given he was a Maquis he might very well have joined up with the Fenris rangers as they seem to have had similar goals.
Maddox suspects his lab was totally destroyed by the Tal Shiar with a molecular solyvent, what he describes seems similar if not the same to the acid attacks used on Dahj.
Elnor is the only person we don’t see get an ad sent to him Seven was off camera so might have had an ad sent her way and who knows what that would have entailed given how customised they were.
Previously, I’d had my suspiscions that Raffi just wanted to go to Freecloud to get lost and wasted, but here we see her true reasons.
Raffi claims to have gotten clean, this might shed a different light on the vaping we saw in her first appearance as that might have been her trying to wean herself off harder drugs. Her stopping Rios from smoking on his own bridge would indicate that she is cleaning up her act, or that smoking was never one of her vices and she doesn’t tolerate it.
Seven is referred to by her original name, suggesting for a time she may have tried to live her life under her old human identity before something made her resume her shortened Borg Designation. Possibly that might have been the events leading up to Ichebs death.
The reptilian character Mr Vup is said to be able to smell a lie, amongst other things. While unlikely to be a reference to Wolverine, in X-Men Origins Wolverine, Logan stated he could smell lies too.
Seven is clearly famous, she’s “that Fenris ranger” as Rios puts it. One has to wonder if Icheb had similar fame?
It’s also not mentioned if she still needs to regenerate in an alcove or if she can actually sleep like a regular human.
Freecloud seems to be like the Vegas Strip in some regards, and while we can see Quark has a bar there, somehow Mr Mot, Picards personal barber on the Enterprise D has also got his own hair emporium there. Now if only Garak had his own fashion outlet there.
Raffis son taking a Romulan woman as his lover and mother of his child goes to show he either harbours no ill will to the Romulans or at least doesn’t hold this Romulan responsible for the actions of her Government.
Sevens revenge is fast, and leaves no chance of the bad guy returning from the grave. Disintegration is very hard to come back from. Everyone else she either stuns or has the kill setting on a lower level. That said, Picard was one thought killed by a disrupter that actually transported him to another ship. Very unlikely that Seven did that here.
How on earth did they come up with a name like Bjayzl? Fun fact, Trek connection, the actress portraying her, Necar Zadegan, currently stars alongside Scott Bakula on NCIS New Orleans. The drink she serves, Tranya was first introduced in TOS episode “the corbomite maneuver.”
Evidently Rios has no emergency transporter hologram, nor does his ship computer seem to be able to beam him up from voice commands. Which is a bit odd really in any Trek series.
Both sisters were indeed talking to anAI when they thought they were talking to their mother. This AI apparently could “activate” them when they were in danger, and presumably was able to send Soji off to sleep and seemingly forget about certain issues.
Whatever it is Oh and her people have shown Agnes, it was clearly enough to make her feel death was the only option for Maddox, this could be due to coercion, or even brainwashing. Whatever the reason, she clearly was genuinely upset about her actions.
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