Season 3 of Picard just turned into the perfect sequel to Star Trek: First Contact

When Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore decided to do the first real one TNG When filming a sequel to Best of Both Worlds, they found a wealth of storytelling potential and fan interest. Dodgy action knocks aside (“Assimilate this!”) First contact gave Picard’s trauma its proper place and advanced the character in a way that felt deserved after such a horrific event.

But here’s the thing: Locutus/Picard wasn’t the only person injured by the Battle of Wolf 359. The original episode gives us a hint of the greater cost when we see the wreckage of the USS Melbourne, the potential ship for Riker’s first command. But aside from a few cursory hints, the cost of Wolf 359 only comes to the fore again for the series premiere of Deep Space Nine. There we learn that Jennifer Sisko, wife of Benjamin and mother of Jake, was killed in the Borg attack. During a meeting with Picard in this pilot, Sisko makes no effort to hide his anger at the ex-Borg, but the captain deflects the commander’s anger with rules and protocol. By the end of the episode, Sisko and Picard have made peace, but it’s not clear how they got there.

While this was the 90’s star trek may go to much darker places in 2023. Because of this, the franchise brought back the wonderful Jonathan Frakes, who not only played but also directed our beloved William T. Riker First contactto helm a very satisfying Picard Two-parter that serves as a sequel to the Borg fallout explored in it, among many other things Trek Movie.

As Captain Liam Shaw of the Titan Picard’s bonding moment with Jack Crusher in Picard Episode “No Win Scenario” he comes ready to bring the former Locutus a long-deserved reckoning. Picard had told his son about his relationship with the boy’s namesake, Beverly’s husband. Picard’s guilt over his role in Jack’s death on the USS Stargazer was a key plot point The next generation, the biggest obstacle for him and Beverly getting together. But Shaw doesn’t want to hear about the one death that still haunts Picard. He wants to speak to the thousands of others, including his friends on the USS Constance during the Battle of Wolf 359. Actor Todd Stashwick plays up the horror that still lives inside him as he describes the devastation that was wrought as Picard Locutus was. “It was like outer space was on fire,” he says, wisely avoiding excessive intonation in his voice.

Shaw unearths his most terrifying memories of Starfleet, recalling how he and his engineering room crewmates attempted to evacuate the Constance during the battle. But there was only one escape pod for 50 people. “We were all friends,” he points out to Picard in the present, a believable claim given all the USS Enterprise camaraderie we’ve seen this season. “You were all my Jack Crusher.” At the command of one of the ship’s lieutenants, Shaw and nine others boarded the escape pod to be forever tormented with the guilt of the survivors while those left behind died. As his story progresses, Shaw grows more and more angry, directing his anger at Picard. “Do you know where your old man was that day?” he asks Jack. “He was on that Borg Cube and set the world on fire!”

When Shaw identifies Locutus as “the only Borg so deadly they gave him a goddamn name” (solving a nagging continuity issue), Jack has had enough and comes to his father’s defense. But Picard calls him. He recognizes Shaw’s anger. He gives him dignity. As Picard turns to Shaw, Patrick Stewart draws on that inherent kindness and warmth that made us love him for decades, even when Picard was a child-hating fuddy-duddy. “It’s okay,” he says to Shaw, confirming the other man’s feelings.