Want to make a strong Picard episode? Take a Pill

Want to make a strong episode of Star Trek: Picard (STP)? 

Make Alison Pill the feature performer.

Pill's performance as the integrated Dr. Jurati and Borg Queen (we'll call her Borgati) carries the sixth episode of season 2 and helps viewers ignore the weak plot elements that continue to plague STP.

Credit should be given to writers Cindy Appel and Jane Maggs, who have written a witty script, filled with delightful surprises, and director Jonathan Frakes who delivers that script with agreeable panache.

Unfortunately, Appel and Maggs also fall into the trap of taking inexplicable plot short cuts, a trap that has plagued the entire season:

• last episode, Dr. Soong had his funding cut, which was presented as a devastating blow, and this episode he is able to donate so much money to the space mission that he is offered a seat on the board and VIP treatment -- further, if he now has the power to have the elder Picard detained, why couldn't he also try to have the younger Picard removed from the mission?;
• Borgati suddenly has the ability to pop hand cuffs off her own wrists, emit some kind of stuff that puts the others in the security room to sleep and wipes their memories for a brief period, and send out blasts of energy that shut down the electricity to some parts of the gala ball (but thankfully not that critical spotlight);
• Picard and his astronaut great great great aunt, who is the key to this whole story, just happen to chose to walk down a dark road, outside the gala, at the precise moment that a desperate Dr. Soong is sitting in his car, revving the engine and contemplating desperate measures;
• Dr. Soong just happens to leave his lab unlocked, his computer open and without password protection, to permit Kore to discover the truth about herself.

But, overall, it's a fun episode that includes several moments that actually surprised and delighted me.

The two biggest ones involved Pill.

First, as pictured at the top of this post, is the moment that Borgati appears at the top of the stairs in the main ball room at the gala, suddenly lit up by a spotlight, belting out Pat Benatar's "Shadows of the Night". It's silly, it's bizarre, but it's also awesome. And beautifully delivered, both visually and through sound.

And then there's the final image, as Raffi tells the crew gathered around a comatose Picard that surely things cannot get any worse, we cut to Borgati, still in that stunning red dress, striding through the LA darkness like the scientist queen that she is, making it very clear that things are about to get much much worse.

Not that we didn't all know that this moment was coming. But it's really well done.

Pill is fantastic throughout, taking on the difficult role of playing both shy scientist and domineering Borg queen in the same body.

She delivers an amazing performance, even if you wonder how all of those security guards missed it that 1) the stunning blond in the red dress they detained moments ago is suddenly free again and 2) the stunning blond in the red dress is wandering around this high-security event talking quite openly to herself. Wouldn't either of those facts have drawn their attention?

And I am still concerned that, at every turn, one member of Picard's team or another seems to decide that their personal stuff is of sufficient importance to jeopardize the entire, universe-saving mission -- Rios and his new-found love, Raffi and her attempt to stop Tallin from reviving Picard so that they can get on with it, and Picard himself and his bizarre decision to retreat within himself at such a pivotal moment.

I am also concerned that, after being warned not to kill a butterfly for fear of causing further damage to the timeline, our fearless crew has basically run a wrecking ball through the entire 22nd Century.

And, after this season started out feeling a lot like a rehash for The Voyage Home, is it not now becoming a little too much a copy of First Contact?

Still, at least this episode was surprising. And fun.