In the second episode of Star Trek Picard, Jean-Luc goes head to head with Starfleet, and things get very heated between him and Admiral Clancy. We learn quite a lot in this episode about what the Romulans are up to, but there's plenty more to discover. Basically, a lot of setup this time around, but that doesn't mean it isn't compelling viewing.

Join me as we dig deep into this episode of Star Trek Picard.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars, and I am a nerd.

This is episode 12 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about the second episode of Star Trek: Picard. Maps and Legends.

The description on IMDB reads

Picard begins investigating the mystery of Dahj as well as what her very existence means to the Federation. Without Starfleet's support, Picard is left leaning on others for help, including Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) and an estranged former colleague, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd). Meanwhile, hidden enemies are also interested in where Picard's search for the truth about Dahj will lead.

 

This episode was

Written by Michael Chabon & Akiva Goldsmith

And Directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper

 

And it first aired on the 30th of January 2020.

Make it so.

 

So episode two begins with a flashback to the synth attack on Mars. There have a bunch of androids who live in a closet. They appear to be manual labourers. I’ve heard a few people say that the shuttles in Picard are copies of Discovery shuttles. And that may be so. I’d have to look at them side by side. By honestly, they fit in much better here. They look like 24th century shuttles. So I don’t see that as a problem. Their use here is fine. Their use in the 23rd century is the issue.

One of the human workers is kind of mocking the android F8. This just seems weird to me. I mean, I don’t insult my toaster and make fun of it because it’s not alive. And from what we understand, these androids are not sentient.

In fact, this was all established way back in Voyager.

In the episode Prototype, B'elanna Torres is asked whether her culture includes artificial lifeforms.

She answers  “As a matter of fact, it does. They come in different shapes, different sizes, some have limbs, some don’t. Most don’t have your cognitive abilities. I guess you could say that the robots we use are servants in a manner of speaking, but they aren't sentient like you. In fact, we have only one sentient artificial lifeform in our society and he is treated the same as any human.”

She, of course, is speaking of Data.

What we’re seeing here fits very nicely with what Belana said in Voyager. Anyway, that woman was a bit odd. She didn’t feel very federation.

I’ve heard some people saying that this new show completely destroys Gene Roddenberry’s utopian view of the future, and this was before the show even came out. That’s not the way I see it. Deep Space Nine pushed back against the upotian thing, and I think the show was better for it, but I think it might have done a better job. This woman being intolerant of a non-sentient  non-living android is a bit clumsy.

And then F8’s eyes flash and he starts doing something at the computer which initiates the synthetic attack.

What brought this on? Was it the woman’s mockery? Were they rising up because they weren’t being treated with respect? I don’t think so. F8 isn’t capable of feeling offense The flashing eyes seems to represent something activating in him. Some latent programming that somebody has turned on.

I’m very interested to learn more.

Fun little tid-bit. Looking at the various images in the opening title sequence, we see some 3d glass polygons. We’ve seen something that looks like that before. A holographic portrait of Tasha Yar that belonged to Data. Interesting. I wonder why they chose that particular image.

Back at chateau picard, Jean Luc is on the case, trying to learn what he can about the attack on dahj.

And we learn about the Romulan myth of the Juk vash. A romulan poli