Picard and the crew of La Sirena arrive at Soji’s home world, Coppelius, pursued by Narek and other hostiles. Will they find Soji’s people, and what will the reception be?

An episode that proudly sells itself as part one of a two-part season finale, there’s a lot of setup in this 45 minutes, some nice surprises and everything to play for next week. All the threads built up over the preceding weeks are finally coming together and it will be interesting to see what gets carried over to the already-in-production Season Two.

Riding a conduit, the crew travel 25 light years in just 15 minutes, giving themselves an advantage over the fleet of Romulan Warbirds on their tail. Right from the off there is some major outer space action, though this eases as the ships crash to the planet, partially cushioned by giant defence orchids.

There are some lovely emotional beats here, Raffi telling JL that she loves him (and his awkward response) and the painfully blunt revelation by Picard to his crew that he is dying of an inoperable brain abnormality – anyone who treats him like a dying man runs the risk of pissing him off!

Down on the planet we meet Soji’s peers, predecessors and creator. I’m not spoiling a particular reveal, but why can’t they keep some guest star’s names in the end credits to avoid premature spoilerage?* Isa Briones is terrific as ‘evil’ counterpart Sutra, decked out in Data’s yellow eyes and glowing golden skin, and we discover just what the relevance of the Admonition was all along. And while I say it every week, I’ll say it again – Allison Pill is superb as Agnes, trying to atone for her most awful of crimes and to find her new place in the universe.

Verdict: A ratcheting up of tension with a fair sprinkling of revelation, though leaving resolution for the season finale. What a great show this has been – I’m not sure I’m ready for what’s to come. 8/10

Nick Joy

*For those watching on Amazon Prime, it may be worth skipping the titles to avoid such spoilerage – PS