Moriarty's Tune

Story: The Bounty

Written By: Christopher Monfette
Series: Star Trek: Picard
Year: 2023

Riker, Worf, and Raffi break into Daystrom Station, a space station hiding many secret weapons hidden by Section 31, including attack tribbles, the Genesis Device and James T. Kirk. Wait...why is James T. Kirk kept with all these weapons? Wasn't he buried under some rocks on a random planet for no reason?  Nevermind...they go there to find the computer that could lead to who stole the secret portal weapon and the possible more deadly weapon.  Once there they face off with the hologram of Professor Moriarty who guards the mainframe.  Turns out the mainframe is Data.  

Well not really Data, but the last Soong-type android created by Alton Soong before he died.  This one is meant to be more of a human synthetic hybrid like Picard is now.  And while he never finished the project, and not everything is fully integrated, this android has the personalities of Data, Lore, Lal, and B-4 in it's brain. As well as the information the crew needs to save the galaxy. 

Meanwhile, Picard has the Titan head to Geordi, who is not as eager to help as Picard hoped.  He is a lot more timid nowadays, as he has a family to protect.  He also seems to completely ignore all the evidence that Starfleet has been utterly infiltrated by Changelings.  He just wants to go sit at a desk with his daughter by his side, and send off a series of letters to the editor complaining that Starfleet is planning on doing something stupid with Starships. Oh yeah, that seems like even more evidence of this Changeling plot, why are you trying to pretend like this is "not your problem" again Geordi?  Oh well, everything is dumb in this version of Star Trek, I must move past that and just enjoy seeing LeVar Burton again.  

Despite some difficulties, they are able to get Raffi, Worf, and the new Data aboard the Titan and escape. Unfortunately Riker got captured saving the rest. Geordi gets the new Data working, sort of, and he is able to tell them what was stolen: the human remains of Jean-Luc Picard. Whoops! Also Riker is captured by Vadic, who reveals that she doesn't expect Riker to betray his friends willingly...but as insurance she has captured Troi.  Whoops!

Again, I am enjoying this despite how dumb I think a lot of it is.  I think the characters are written with some dumb flaws that do not match the characters I love, and I think the story is another over the top apocalypse. A real shame that Trek is so doom heavy nowadays.  

NEXT TIME: Vadiclore