Star Trek: Picard Review: Remembrance (Season 1 Episode 1)

Star Trek: Picard Season 1 Episode 1, “Remembrance,” opens like a breath of fresh air, bringing a new story to life, yet built on the foundations of characters and relationships that we already love. Star Trek, like any good piece of science fiction, has always been allegorically relevant to the time it’s made in, and Star Trek: Picard carries on that legacy. 

Star Trek: Picard stays true to the emotional grounding of the series’ it succeeds, rooting the story in the characters and the relationships between them. 

Data: Why are you stalling Captain?

Picard: I don’t want the game to end.

“Remembrance” opens with a heavy dose of nostalgia in a dream sequence featuring many easter eggs for fans who loved Star Trek: The Next Generation. From the poker game with Data to a steaming cup of tea (earl grey, hot) — all set to the tune of Blue Skies — everything takes us back to those good old days of Captain Picard’s command off the Enterprise-D. 

It also does an excellent job of letting us know that this vision is an illusion and we are entering a time where Starfleet, the Federation, and the world of Star Trek as we know it has changed. 

Written by Akiva Goldsman and James Duff, the first episode of this new chapter is directed by Hanelle Culpepper, who is the first woman to direct the opening episodes of a Star Trek series in the franchise’s decades-long run. She magnificently shapes this episode around Picard, as well as each of the new people we are meeting for the first time.

Speaking of these new characters, I have had all of them for only a day, but if anything bad happens to them I will kill everyone in this room and then myself. 

The first and most prominent newbie we come across is Dahj. Isa Briones brings the character to life with a level of emotion that immediately has the audience yearning to protect her — the same yearning that Picard feels almost immediately upon meeting her. 

Zhaban: Be the Captain they remember.

Picard’s love for Data, and all life, is felt strongly on this episode. It’s clear that Dahj seeking out his help gives him a purpose for the first time in what appears to be quite some years, but we are also given a look at the time between where we last saw Jean-Luc Picard and where the retired Starfleet Admiral is now. 

After the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and the destruction of Romulus via supernova, which is mentioned in Star Trek (2009), Picard argues for the rescue and relocation of the surviving Romulan people because it is inherently the right thing to do. 

Picard: The Federation understood there were millions of lives at stake.

Interviewer: Romulan lives.

Picard: No, lives. 

Unfortunately, Picard’s opinion here is the unpopular one. He’s put on the spot during an interview and forced to defend his position about both Romulan lives and Synthetic/Artificial life forms. Picard does remain true to the Captain we remember, representing the best of what Starfleet should be…even when it has become something corrupt and cowardly. 

Star Trek: Picard‘s opening episode also delivers a lot of exposition about this new world without ever making the audience feel like it is exposition. The inciting incident and everything that follows after aids to build this continuation of the world of Star Trek.

On “Remembrance,” we also meet the first of Picard’s rebel recruits, Dr. Agnes Jurati. Agnes is passionate about artificial life, and you can tell she carries both deep remorse for what happened to Mars and Utopia Planitia and a yearning to create and understand artificial life forms in a world that has banned them. 

Picard: You are something lovingly and deliberately created…I will never leave you. You are the daughter of a man who was all meaning, all courage. Be like him.

Shockingly, we lose Dahj only moments after we’ve met her. Her attackers appear to be Romulan, which has to be a blow for Picard. And while it’s still unclear why they were so determined to take her out, or who they’re working for, one thing is for sure: her sister is likely to also be in danger. 

Picard has a new mission, and I doubt anyone is going to be able to keep him from completing it. 

The final moments of “Remembrance” drop us into one of this episode’s many shocking reveals as we find Dahj’s sister, Soji, at a “Romulan Reclamation Center,” which just so happens to be inside a defunct (or so we think) Borg Cube. It’s thrilling to watch all of these pieces of Star Trek history come together to expand this universe beyond our current understanding of it. 

Star Trek: Picard breathes fresh life into a beloved story, expanding this universe with the heart we’ve come to expect from the series and a mission statement that stays true what Star Trek has always been.

STARFLEET COMMUNIQUE:

• What do Data’s five queens of hearts mean?
• I would die for Zhaban and Laris. I’m ready to ship them and protect them probably as much as Picard is. 
• When Dahj said “everything inside of me says that I’m safe with you,” to Picard, I felt that. 
• That interview holds so much information that I feel like I need to watch it at least 30 more times. 
• I can’t believe we already lost Dahj! Do you guys think that we can trust Soji? Does she need our protection? Or is this a Data/Lore situation?
• Is there something IN the necklace that the sisters both wear?

 

What did you think of this episode of Star Trek: Picard? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Star Trek: Picard airs Thursdays on CBS All Access.

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