Beyond the Red Door

Story: Võx

Written By: Sean Tretta & Kiley Rossetter
Series: Star Trek: Picard
Year: 2023

Troi goes into Jack's head and discovers his big secret...he is a secret Borg! Turns out that when Picard was assimilated, some Borg nanoprobes remained in his DNA or something, and he passed this on to Jack. This is why he is having visions of connecting vines (like the connection of the Borg) and his mind powers to control others is a Borg side effect as well.  Protocols say he needs to be locked up in some Vulcan asylum or something, and annoyed at this he runs off in a shuttle and makes his way to the Borg cube and it's Queen, where he is seemingly assimilated. 

The Titan crew determine that the Changelings were working with the Borg all along, and they have infiltrated all the ships in Starfleet so they can inject Picard DNA into the transporters or something, to assimilate them without knowing it?  Then when the fleet does it's big dumb show on Frontier Day of how all their ships are now connected like when the Power Rangers would have all their Zords connect into one (which is maybe the dumbest fucking thing who high up in Star Fleet didn't smell trouble with this shit?), the Borg send a transmission which seems to activate their assimilation.  But it only affects the babies...not old farts like our TNG crew!  

So the TNG crew escape, Shaw getting killed in the process with his last act to hand the Titan over to Seven (and in an act of true respect, he calls her Seven of Nine instead of Hansen).   With Seven and Raffi left behind on the Titan to fight the good fight (I guess?), Geordi takes the TNG gang back to his spaceship museum, where he reveals that for years he has been restoring the Enterprise D.  The saucer is the original removed from the wreckage on Veridian III, with the engines and nacelles came from other Galaxy class ships.  So the crew finally are returned to their old TV home...and I'll be honest: this got me.  I enjoyed this. I try not to let nostalgia color my enjoyment of things, I try to see where they really are...but seeing that classic ship, with it's bright even TV lighting, with the comfy bridge with the carpet (as Picard says, you gotta miss it...Trek has been to submarine metal for too long), and it just made me happy.  And the little bit Riker said about them being the crew of the Enterprise got me in the emotions.  Every franchise tries to pull the "we are FAMILY" business, and saying it not really enough. But I spent 7 years and 4 films with this crew, and they do feel like a family. Even if I don't think the character writing on this show is spot-on...just seeing this cast together on the bridge of the Enterprise was enjoyable. 

Also the Enterprise F showed up with Admiral Shelby from Best of Both Worlds in command. I don't know anything about the Enterprise F other than it had a lot of fans from the Star Trek Online game, which I have never played.  I am glad fans that wanted it to show up since the beginning of this show got what they wanted. And also Shelby got shot in the chest because she couldn't smell a rat with this obvious Borg trap.  

NEXT TIME: Back in the D!