Another fun episode, though narratively a little weaker than the last couple.
Now on the positive side
- That was some Season 8 GoT teleporting in this episode. The titan made it to the museum, back it Daystrom, and still had time for a nice leisurely chat between Picard and Geordi (not a "Geordi I need this now now now time is of the essence" but a "hey lets talk about the kids for a bit")..... all in the span of an hour.
- While I personally don't mind it, I think there is going to be people miffed that Deanna has been relegated to the "damsel in distress" role, since she was often so narratively weak in the main show. Now at first it does seem convenient that they happen to have captured Will and then just happen to have Deanna, but on the flip side they did say they were going to check on all the places they could hide, Deanna would be a natural one. So if she isn't the only one they shook down, I can buy that.
- Up till now the cameos have mostly worked for me. Beverly starts us off, brings in Picard, Picard brings in his old buddy Will....check. Ok Worf gets caught up in the greater conspiracy, a little convenient but we can allow a feeeew contrivances. Alright Geordi leads the museum, allowing that as an option for them to use (otherwise they probably could never have gone there in the first place)....sure I'm on board. Data as the AI powering daystrom....that was just one convenience too far for me. I get we want the whole crew back together, but Data has died TWICE, let the poor android rest already.
- So did the security bypass actually work? On the one hand they weren't killed immediately, but security did get alerted to their Prescence. It's not clear what happened there.
- The whole "lets use the cloaking device" idea is cool....until you realize that many times in ST they have noted that older cloaking systems have weaknesses that can be detected by modern systems. Hell the enterprise has done so on several occasions. Its highly impractical that a cloaking system on a bird of prey that old would have done anything useful. If they had given our miracle worker Geordi some real time with it....maybe I could buy he "upgrades it", but he had like 5 minutes. Even Geordi isn't that good!
- Beverly is talking about Jack's condition like it won't really affect him for decades to come....but he is having full blown hallucinations right now! He literally killed people that he wasn't sure were the enemy. They are handwaving that far too much, especially considering how important Jack seems to be to the changelings.
Now on the positive side
- I appreciate the "father's conundrum" that Geordi goes through. When its your life on the line its one thing, but when its your daughters, its a whole different ballgame, so I appreciated that hesitation Geordi went through. He got there in the end though.
- The narrative with Jack having the same disease as Picard is an interesting bond, and its a true part of a son meeting their estranged father. You get some diamonds and you get some coal as part of the package.
- The nod to Voyager was nice for Seven. It was a little contrived that Jack who is "super interested in spaceships" wouldn't have heard of one of the most famous starships at this time (I mean the actual tale of Voyager would be an absolute legend at this point)....but its a minor point to give Seven a nostalgia moment.
- I felt the Father/Daughter energy with Geordi and his daughters. The whole "I used to crash things so we could fix them together" was a cute thing I could totally see a daughter do, especially with an important dad that was probably away far too much.
- Shaw geeking out at meeting Geordi was great
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