So when Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore determined to make the primary correct TNG film a sequel to “The Best of Both Worlds,” they discovered a wealthy vein of storytelling potential and fan curiosity. Dodgy motion beats apart (“Assimilate this!”), First Contact gave Picard’s trauma its due, advancing the character in a manner that felt earned after such a horrific occasion.
However right here’s the factor: Locutus/Picard wasn’t the one individual harm by the Battle of Wolf 359. The unique episode provides us a touch of the bigger price, after we see the wreckage of the USS Melbourne, the potential ship for Riker’s first command. However exterior of some passing references, the price of Wolf 359 solely comes again to the forefront for the series premiere of Deep Space Nine. There, we study that Jennifer Sisko, spouse of Benjamin and mom of Jake, died within the Borg assault. Throughout a gathering with Picard in that pilot, Sisko makes no effort to cover his fury towards the previous Borg, however the Captain deflects the Commander’s anger with guidelines and protocols. By the episode’s finish, Sisko and Picard have made peace, but it surely’s not clear how they received there.
Whereas these have been the ’90s, Star Trek can go to a lot darker locations in 2023. Which is why the franchise introduced again the great Jonathan Frakes, who on prime of taking part in our beloved William T. Riker additionally directed First Contact, to helm a really satisfying Picard two-parter that, among many other things, serves as a continuation of the Borg fallout explored in that Trek movie.
When Captain Liam Shaw of the Titan interrupts Picard’s bonding second with Jack Crusher within the Picard episode “No Win Scenario,” he comes able to convey the previous Locutus a long-deserved reckoning. Picard had been telling his son about his relationship with the boy’s namesake, Beverly’s husband. Picard’s guilt over his function in Jack’s demise on the USS Stargazer was a key plot level in The Subsequent Technology, the biggest obstacle to him and Beverly getting collectively. However Shaw doesn’t need to hear concerning the one demise that also haunts Picard. He needs to speak concerning the hundreds of others, together with his buddies on the USS Constance in the course of the Battle of Wolf 359. Actor Todd Stashwick performs up the horror that also lives inside him as he describes the devastation wrought when Picard was Locutus. “It was like space was burning,” he says, properly refraining from extra inflection in his voice.
Digging up his most horrible Starfleet reminiscence, Shaw recollects how he and his crewmates in engineering tried to evacuate the Constance in the course of the battle. However there was just one escape pod for 50 folks. “We were all friends,” he factors out to Picard within the current, a plausible declare given all of the USS Enterprise camaraderie we’ve seen this season. “They were all my Jack Crusher.” Below orders from one of many ship’s lieutenants, Shaw and 9 others boarded the escape pod, to be eternally racked with survivor’s guilt whereas these left behind died. As his story goes on, Shaw grows angrier, directing his fury at Picard. “Do you know where your old man was on that day?” he asks Jack. “He was on that Borg cube, setting the world on fire!”
By the point Shaw identifies Locutus as “the only Borg so deadly they gave him a goddamn name” (thus fixing a nagging continuity difficulty), Jack has had sufficient and involves his father’s protection. However Picard calls him off. He acknowledges Shaw’s anger. He provides it dignity. As Picard turns towards Shaw, Patrick Stewart attracts on that inherent kindness and heat that made us love him for many years, even when Picard was a kid-hating fuddy-duddy. “It’s alright,” he tells Shaw, validating the opposite man’s emotions.
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