22nd March, 2020.
Yes!
And a very exultant ‘yes,’ that is, too.
I’ve possibly mentioned I have a refurbished laptop: running a version of Ubuntu Mate.
Something I’d originally been planning to use to hunt for jobs with: in Brentwood Library.
Oh, and explore a different operating system with.
I’v officially found a free screen recorder I can use with the thing: called — appropriately enough — SimpleScreenRecorder.
I managed to record the playback of a recent game of Battle for Wesnoth with it.
OK, that sort of turn based RPG isn’t going to be everyones cup of tea: neither is installing a screen recorder.
But hey … I’m happy.
~≈¥≈~
Or, at least, feeling cheerful … ish …
Cheerful enough to catch an episode of my current favourite TV show.
Oh, boy!
~≈¥≈~
Episode 3 — The End Is the Beginning — opens with a flashback: days after the attack on Mars.
Shows us Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) admitting to his then executive officer, Cmdr Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) that — in order to keep the Romulan evacuation going — he’s offered his politically iffy plan …
Or his resignation …
Many years, later, he is on Raffi’s doorstep asking for her help.
Help she is reluctant to give: having been unceremoniously kicked out of the fleet in the wake of her former captain’s leaving.
Help she eventually gives: in naming the bad tempered pilot Chris Rios (Santiago Cabrera*) as the man to help Admiral Picard in his mission to find Data’s daughters …
~≈¥≈~
Meanwhile … ?
Meanwhile, Soji (Isa Briones) is still at the Romulan controlled Borg Reclaimation Project.
Where recovered Borg, Hugh† (Jonathan del Arco) is working as the project’s Executive director: and granted Soji an interview with Ramdha ªRebecca Wisocky), a recovered Romulan drone …
A recovered drone who attacks, and almost kills Soji: calling the latter the Destroyer, in the process.
Ramdha’s not the only one.
The term is also used by the only survivor of a group of Zhat Vash that attack Admiral Picard at home.
That is defeated — in part — with the help of Dr Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill). Her actions only confirms what’s she wants to do.
Help Picard find Bruce Maddox: the man who seems instrumental to the whole thing …
~≈¥≈~
Now …
I know what you’re going to say.
“Is this episode any good?”
Yes!
I wrote — in my review of the first episode of Star Trek Picard — that familiar characters were part of a spin-off serials appeal.
That’s certainly the case with Star Trek Picard: and, indeed, with The End Is the Beginning.
We get to see the familiar face of Hugh, the Borg drone the Enterprise crew wanted to use as a weapon, and find out what’s happened to him.
Scarred, injured, but still seemingly intent on doing some form of good, by helping his fellow recovering drones.
There’s ALSO the appeal of the new.
And of the unexplained.
Both of which we get to see in the tormented Raffi. The simple fact she calls her commanding officer ‘JL’ speaks of a wealth of back-story — of a close working relationship, gone wrong — we’ve yet to explore: and that is brilliantly set up.
I hope we get to explore that a lot more.
It strikes me that any theoretically perfect Starfleet officer who can treat a bottle of Chateau Picard like that, has a bit of history.
Please, God, I hope that’s developed!
As for the story itself?
I’ve — sort of — realised what we have he: thus far.
We have Star Trek’s equivalent to The Magnificent Seven.
Although we’re part way through seeing the story.
We’re seeing Jean Luc assemble his team: whilst the Mexicans — the villainous Narissa (Peyton List) — are readying themselves to attack the village.
Soji, in this case.
John Lydon — at the end of an especially bad night — said “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
On the back of three episodes of Star Trek Picard?
We really haven’t been cheated!
* Who I’d last seen in Merlin, and Musketeers.
† The character first appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, I, Borg in 1992.
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