Star Trek Picard season 3

 Okay, two things first that immediatly drew my attention: it is no longer called Picard, but Star Trek Picard, and it has the old TNG music opening (and ending) theme's back.

Second thing: boy oh boy, this is what a farewell tour should be like, as it ties up a lot of loose ends, and it is a great hommage to all (and take that literally, more about that later in) members of the The Next Generation crew.

 

It all starts when Picard receives a call for aid from the medical vessel SS Eleos, commanded by Beverly Crusher.  As she tells him not to involve Starfleet, he turns to his old friend Captain Riker, and together they arrange a suprise inspection of the USS Titan-A, the successor to Riker's old ship.  They try to convince her captain, Liam Shaw (god I love this character) to take them to her location, which he declines.  But his first officer, none other then Seven of Nine, changes the vessel's course, ignoring his orders.

 

In the meantime Rafi, now working for Starfleet Intelligence and a mysterious handler, is tracing a stolen weapon from the Daystrom Institute but arrives to late and sees a facility being destroyed right before her eyes.  Btw, she inherited the La Sirena from the first two seasons.

 

Picard and Riker board the Eleos through a shuttle, finding a severly injured doctor Crusher and her son, Jack Crusher.  But a large vessel, the Shrike commanded by the bounty hunter Vadic, appears and tries to teleport Jack of the bridge, only justly prevented by Picard.  The Titan intervenes when the Eleos is captured in a tractor beam, but it turns out Jack is a wanted criminal and captain Shaw considers turning him over to save his crew from the formidable opponent.  Rafi is told by her Handler to hold back, but she pushes on and meets with a Ferengi named Sneed, but as he almost kills her, her handler appears and dispatches the Ferengi, being none other then Mister Worf!

 

 

It is revealed Jack is Picard's son, something Riker had already noticed, and realizing he won't turn him over, Shaw orders the Titan deeper into the unstable nebula, Vadic giving chase.  When Shaw gets injured in the chase, he transfers command of the Titan to Riker, but as they try to escape the use of portal technology keeps them trapped.  Picard wants to lay a trap, while Riker opts to flee, as Seven and Jack discover that a gas leak is giving away their position.  This is revealed to be sabotage by none other then a Changeling, as Rafi and Worf discover their target is also a Changeling, part of a group that keeps opposing the Federation after the Dominion War and the attack with the portal weapon was just a distraction.

 

Riker lets Picard convince him to attack, but their weapons are reverted due to the portal weapon and with heavy damage the Titan sinks in the gravitational anomaly inside the nebula.  As they make up later, Shaw bitterly tells his experience at the Battle of Wolf 359 and why he dislikes Picard as such.  Vadic, also a Changeling, is ordered to pursue the Titan, as the crew makes a plan to use the energy pulses in the nebula to repower the Titan, and as they damage the Shrike on their escape the nebula gives birth to a new organism.  Picard realises that five years ago, Jack had sought him out and he had unknowingly turned him away, as Jack experiences strange visions.  Returning command to Shaw, the Titan is approached by the USS Intrepid, to arrest Picard and Riker.  But their security officer, none other then Ro Laren, warns them to escape as it is revealed the higher echelons of Starfleet have been infitrated by Changelings that found a way past the screening tests.

Ro sacrifices herself to give them a way to escape, as they are contacted by Worf he was also working against the infiltration with Ro.  Gathering together, they journey to the Daystrom institute together with LaForge.  They discover that the security system there is actually a synthetic lifeform (like Picard is now) containing the memories of Data, Lore and B-4.  In the meantime, Jack and LaForge's daughters take the old cloaking device of the HMS Bounty (the Bird-of-Prey from The Voyage Home) to install on the Titan.

As they start to reinitialize Data, they find out the Changelings have stole Picard's original body as Riker covers their escape from Daystrom, being captured by Vadic who also has Deanne in custody.  The crew summarises they want to create a perfect replica of Picard to target the celebrations of the 250th Frontier day anniversary, as Data and lore fight out an ideological battle inside the body, Data using honest trickery to finally ascertain himself as the dominant personality, albeit he comes with emotions now.  As Vadic boards the Titan, she is captured and reveals how she came to be, before taking control of the vessel.  But when a "very pissed off AI" comes into action, they regain control and Vadic is blown into space to her demise.  As Riker and Deanna are saved from the Shrike, they find out the true plan: a new Borg based technology allows all vessels in Starfleet to act as one, and due to a virus in the transporter buffer, all younger aged crewmen become assimilated into Borg as it has been programmed into their patterns.

The Borg Queen, that once created Locutus, wants revenge by assimilating Jack and him becoming her new beacon.  Her damaged cube hides in Jupiter, and as she has control now of every vessel in Starfleet, including the Titan, they need another, not connected ship to go there and stop her.  Enter the final crewmember of the Next Generation as I said above...

Restored by Geordi as a labour of love, they travel to the cube where Picard wants to give himself in exchange for Jack, but the Queen laughs it away, stating the Federation will end anyhow and she doesn't need him anymore.  But Picard gets through to Jack and disconnects him, as they destory the cube and the Queen finally with it, ending the Borg threat now completely.  The assimilated crew returns to normal, as the crew receives full pardon's for their actions.

One year later, the Titan is rechristened the Enterprise-G in honour of their exploits, with Seven of Nine in command, having inherited the ship from the late captain Shaw who gave his life for the others to escape during the Borg attack.  Jack is assigned to the vessel, but as the vessel sets out, he is visited by Q saying Picard's trial has ended, but his has just begun...

Okay, this was an awesome farewell to the Next Generation, with a lot of tie-ups of older story arcs.  It also leaves open the window for a spin-off series, but unfortunatly that is not on the table though, even if you play Star Trek Online, shards can be deducted of what came to pass afterwards.

Maybe I should reinstall that game one of the weeks...