So Issue 2 of Star Trek Picard’s prequel comic came out over Christmas and it continues
the build up to some event that caused Jean-Luc Picard, now a fleet admiral in Starfleet to
resign his commission and I think we’re getting some hints at maybe why.
Basically, so where all on the same page before I get to the talking point I wanna mention,
part one saw the USS Verity arrive at Yuyat Beta to evacuate the Romulan Colonists prior
to the supernova that wipes out Romulus. This is all in the year 2385, sometime before the
supernova occurs from what we know, but several changes have already been made to the prior
continuity provided by the Countdown books and supported by works such as Star Trek Online,
which is no biggie, these sources are considered extra canonical and open to be tweaked.
Biggest changes appear to be that Data still remains inactive at this time and that the
supernova, so far, not even named as the Hobus system is a known event. The Federation and
possibly Romulus are aware that this stellar explosion is going to be more severe than
it should be and the Federation in particular is taking great pains to try to save as many
in the potential blast zone as possible. But as of issue one, we find that the Romulan’s
are being all… Romulan about it and not even allowing the Verity to actively scan
their planets as many in the senate are paranoid enough to think that this whole evacuation
attempt is pretence for Starfleet to locate and map out all their civilian and military
sectors. After years of pushing and negotiating, Picard has finally been granted access to
a single world to evacuate but finds that there is already a native species that the
Romulan’s have enslaved. Not wishing to evacuate the Romulan populous
at the expense of the natives, Picard refuses to aid the Romulans unless they grant him
time to evacuate everyone. So Shiana, the Governor of Yuyat Beta imprisons him to leverage
her evacuation. So skipping over the details, the Governor’s
residence is attacked in issue two, and Picard and his XO, Lt Commander Raffi , a Starfleet
specialist in Romulan operations, are rescued by the natives who have armed themselves with
Romulan disruptors. Meanwhile, while Picard escapes, the Romulans
repel the attack, slaughtering the natives easily and set about enacting their own escape
plans. This is where things get interesting and the reason for me making this video. Shiana
contacts Lt Newton on the USS Verity, who is unaware of Picard’s fate and she tells
him that she and her staff have come under attack by the natives and that Starfleet’s
delegation is dead. Newton is confused as Picard was to learn
of a native population but Governor Shiana is playing dazed and confused and promises
answers if they’ll just beam her and her team up. Once aboard, Newton, a fairly smart
guy isn’t willing to take her word that Picard is dead so preps an away team to investigate
and doesn’t let Shiana or her aides out of his sight. She insists that she needs to
call the Senate to apprise them of her situation, which is all well and good, so Newton leads
her to the Captain’s ready room for her to call from because calls from the Captain’s
terminal are secured. This is where things go sour as instead of
calling the senate from the console, Athus enters an unseen command override that triggers
a red alert and locks down the Verity, sealing the ready room off from the ship. Then there
is a throwaway line from the Governor to Athus, that’s she’ll “have to thank (her) benefactors
if (they) ever meet.” This issue ends soon after with her citing
something about accepting the one true path, but it’s this benefactors line that I’m
interested in. Someone with knowledge of Starfleet override codes supplied the Romulan governor
with the means to usurp control of a Federation vessel. We’ve seen these sorts of command
codes issued before, notably things like a ship’s prefix code that can grant remote
access to certain systems if a Starfleet ship was ever hijacked and many captains can customise
protocols and security measures to their situational experience.
But either way, such overrides such as this apparent lock-down of the USS Verity are protected
by the highest levels of Starfleet security. Picard as an Admiral would have access to
them, but as far as we know, they weren’t tortured out of him between issues and besides,
this wouldn’t gel with the whole mysterious benefactor angle.
So the most troubling conclusion to draw is that someone within Starfleet supplied the
override to Shiana possibly to grant her an edge in leveraging her evacuation over Picard’s
protests. It could be someone in Starfleet knew of the native situation and that Picard
would protest about leaving them behind so provided the Governor with a means of “coercion”.
After all, the Verity is an Odyssey class starship from all appearances and therefore
hot of the line, maybe even the prototype of the class from the registry. Everything
about its development would also be highly secured, one would think.
So perhaps this is the route of Picard’s disillusion in Starfleet. They made a choice
to agree to the Romulan’s terms and try to save some rather than none. As a numbers
game, I can see the choice being made, but at the end of the day, someone in Starfleet
may have acquiesced to the stubbornness of the Romulans and thrown Picard and the Verity
to the wolves to fulfil an agenda. Troubling insinuations and even if it’s
not where the story is headed, some issues are still present. It means there is a leak
high up in Starfleet or an exploit in security and clearly however this situation resolves,
it is not going to be acceptable in Picard’s opinion.
So what do you think? I see some issues with the actual plot, like if my assumptions are
true, then why send Picard if you knew he’d object? But I believe that if Picard doubted
the integrity of Starfleet command that Jean-Luc Picard would distance himself from the organization.
He’s never been one to follow blindly. Let me know your thoughts and if you’re
reading these issues. So far there’s not too much more to the story and this issue
was kind of a predictable continuation of the first issue but I am wondering if the
climax to this story will include Picard’s resignation or if this is more like another
fray in the rope. I’m liking the clean art style, although
I think they could afford to go a little more stylistic with the design but I get the feeling
that they want to clearly show the tone and look of 2380s Starfleet without too much open
to interpretation. The full page illustrations are a lovely addition and good work in their
own right but like the art style and inking, hold to a fairly 1:1 representation of the
characters and designs. One small nit-pick is that Picard looks so very young in a lot
of these panels and I wish he’d be a little more aged up.
Thanks for watching and if you want me to more comic breakdown or review related stuff,
let me know and until the next video, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you later. Goodbyes!