Picard S01E04 – “Absolute Candor” – Spoilers

OK, So Picard’s politics are interesting enough to fill another post. We’ll see whether that continues.

Translated from my comments in Hebrew here.

• Romulan warrior nuns, whoever thought that would be a thing? Apparently, the writers of ST:P. It’s pretty awesome that we get to see cultural variety in a race that was once portrayed as one-dimensional, and also awesome that despite the fact they have a philosophy of candor, it’s not the only thing that shapes their personalities: the episode makes the point of first introducing us to them and only then explaining their philosophy, which humanizes them in a way that’s pretty refreshing to see in Trek.
• Soji’s plot is still moving at a very slow pace, but the romantic scene with Narek was well done (even better than Chabon’s previous attempt to marry Star Trek and dancing, the short trek Calypso), and the moment in which Soji tilts her head in surprise on hearing one of Narek’s comments it not only a great tribute to TNG, but also a way to get the audience on board with Picard’s notion that Soji is a descendant of Data.
• Jurati is obviously a character that is meant to help new viewers into the show, by having a character that’s clueless about just about everything except her specific profession – when thinking about it, an excellent anti-trope for know-it-all-scientist trope – but is also a character which makes the viewer constantly wonder whether she’s a spy for commodore Oh, asking whether a meeting is secret and being annoyed at a philosophy which is built around candor. It worked better in the current episode than in the previous one, but to be honest the team dynamics of the show still aren’t very interesting. At some point before the show I wondered whether the plan was for Picard to launch the show and fade into the background at some point. The first four episodes make it clear that this isn’t happening any time soon.
• This episode did not feature a direct confrontation with the human opposition to the Romulan rescue (which I talked about in the Watchmen post), but sort of did ask whether the rescue was a good idea to begin with. The show doesn’t bother with giving us an estimation of the losses that may have been avoided by a continued rescue (and that bothers me), but it does emphasize the importance of doing the right thing despite an expected failure, which is what Picard didn’t end up doing and what he tries to do in this episode.
• Picard’s outfit in the flashback definitely says “Colonialism”, and that in itself is a pretty weird thing to associate the protagonist with. Add to that Picard teaching The Three Muskateers to a Romulan child (Picard! A character that became a symbol for cultural exchange, rather than one-sided storytelling). This isn’t a perfect metaphor as the federation doesn’t actually settle Vashti, but the third-world feeling is also evident in the Federation’s abandonment of Vashti, which is reminiscent of the west arming resistance to the soviets and the abandoning that resistance, or bad attempts at humanitarian aid. The confrontation Picard gets into in the end of the episode is interesting in that context because Picard invites it by entering a place where he’s not welcome, but what he’s armed with is an apology. The idea of dialogue instead of violence is obviously deeply rooted in Trek and specifically the character of Picard, but here it is used in the context of past sins against a population: the episode warns that apologizing for them is hard and even dangerous, but also makes the point that it is the right thing to do.