Picard and the crew of La Sirena return to 2024 to fix the divergence in time.

There’s something comfortably familiar about watching Star Trek: Picard, which might seem like a backhanded compliment, but surely is one of the show’s selling points. The new crew members aside, the show is awash in legacy characters and moments of déjà vu. Let’s rename it Star Trek: Nostalgia.

From The Original Series’ Tomorrow is Yesterday and Assignment: Earth to The Voyage Home and Voyager’s Future’s End, trips back to contemporary Earth (as in contemporary to the viewers) have been a thing. This typically involves The Slingshot Effect to send the vessel back in time, and moments of fish out of water confusion and hilarity. This episode embraces all of these tropes, but it’s with a knowing nod. And when Agnes warns the away team to not get involved with the authorities or reveal their tech… have a guess what happens!

Picard remains on the ship as Cris, Seven and Raffi seek out the watcher, the one person (being?) who can reveal what the divergence in time is. There’s also some great moments between Picard, Agnes and the Borg Queen, the balance in power shifting across the episode. Having devoted the first two episodes to establishing the season’s arc, it’s good to get into the story proper, and there’s a great performance from Michelle Hurd as a fired-up Raffi.

Verdict: A Star Trek greatest hits package doesn’t really stretch the imagination, but sometimes if it ain’t broke… 7/10

Nick Joy