‘Ello, Ric here with a review of Star Trek Picard episode 7, “Nepenthe”. I actually
felt that this episode was proceeding rather slowly, but then it finished and I was shocked
that there went 58 minutes of my life. Yeah it was a slower paced episode, but I enjoyed
every second of it. The highlights of course being those scenes set on Nepenthe. The planet
itself has rejuvenating properties in the soil that works on most organic life it seems,
hence the name being Nepenthe, a Greek medicine of myth, although that mythical one was supposed
to cure sadness by making you forget it. I guess with Soji learning of her faked past,
memory and trust were key themes of this. All the scenes with Riker and Troi felt like
a family gathering to me, as a long time Trek fan and from Picard’s point of view and
there is warmth to it that feels like safe harbour before the storm. They are very much
Picard’s family, and as a legacy of Data, could be Soji’s too if she wanted.
I loved the Riker’s old house that in fact was laced with current defences including
perimeter scans and deployable shields and the humble Federation citizen life that they
lead. This sort of setup is closer to the Federation ideal than what we’ve been exposed
to so far. Although there is the laced undertones of sadness from the loss of their first son,
Thaddeus Riker, named after one of Will’s ancestors. Seems the kid was a budding linguist,
but the ban on synthetic life also covered some positronic research that was being used
to synthesise cures to a silicone virus. As a result, Thad passed away. Kestra too is
named after Troi’s sister that passed as a kid. Troi gets her moment with Soji (which
is just as well, the girl needs it) and we learn that she cannot be read by Betazoids.
The minute Troi sent her daughter away on some errand; I recognized that look and smiled
as she put on her counsellor’s hat. In fact I grinned and gave warm laughs a lot throughout
this episode. Like when Riker was so happy to see Picard, he got flour all over him and
neither one noticed. Picard comes off as rather unaware of the
trauma that Soji is going through, letting slip too early that she is an android and
mocking the idea that the Riker setup is all faked. A little blind of him, but looking
back on the series, Picard usually turned to counsellor Troi for these sorts of things
and by the time of the dinner table, Picard is channelling his old Captain’s self once
again. Kestra’s curiosity about Soji too served to anchor her as Soji’s world is
flipped, the two having both lost siblings and Kestra full of stories from Riker about
the heroics of Lieutenant Commander Data. Hopefully as Soji rediscovers herself, she’ll
reform into someone like the person Kestra sees. In an all too intentional way, Riker
also acts as an audience proxy and in particular someone familiar with TNG as he and Picard
privately criticise the motley crew and high levels of drama as well as the emotional baggage
that the La Sirena group are dragging around. I appreciate the series self-awareness here.
I was a little upset that we didn’t get to see what the Rikers had been getting up
to since Captain Riker took command of the USS Titan in 2379, but as Will remains on
active reserve, well maybe his time in the captain’s chair isn’t over yet.
Back on the cube front, we have Elnor and Hugh trying to evade the Zhat Vash and Tal
Shair with limited success and Hugh concocts a plan on his reawakened Borg info, to do
something with the Artefact and turn it on the Romulans. However, sexy-evil here foils
that when she kills Hugh which, yes I was disappointed with, but I don’t feel that
Hugh was done a dirty like Icheb was. At least he got to be Hugh again. We don’t get to
see how Elnor survived the last episode, but judging from how the fight scene unfolds,
with him using the surroundings to evade fire and land surprise attacks, for that meaty
15x sneak critical, I could buy that he escaped, especially as Hugh was captive at the beginning
and Elnor was not. Of course, it all ends with the hope that Elnor can use Seven of
Nine to fulfil Hugh’s plan. There’s a lot of ifs and maybes that are going to have
to be convincingly overcome for this to work out, can the Fenris rangers get past the Romulan
defences, can Seven find Elnor, will Elnor be able to evade capture long enough to meet
up with her and will Seven’s dormant Borg memories be triggered just as Picard’s were?
We’ll have to see. I appreciate too the time it took to allude
to the delicate balance between the Federation and the Romulan Free State, its seems that
neither side is willing to risk a diplomatic incident but the Tal Shair have always operated
in the dark, often to even its own Government. I’m curious though if the organisation by
now is completely rogue, consumed by this Zhat Vash element or on some level still works
for the Romulan… Senate? Empress? Also, where did Elnor get that ranger’s beacon?
And finally on the La Sirena, Agnes is having doubts after her betrayal as she tries to
prevent the crew from following Picard, without admitting she is being tracked. This is compounded
even more so when Rios assumes that Raffi is a leak, or unwitting spy and confides in
Jurati. I’ll give the scenes a plus point for the guilt ridden performance to the point
where Agnes assumes that a Neurotoxin is the best way to eliminate the tracker. Which works,
so I’m going to assume that the Tracker is linked to her nervous system or something
and not just battery powered? That could have used a little more clarification. I also thought
they’d addressed the EMH issue when one failed to activate on Raffi’s request, but
then the EMH appeared in the med bay. So hopefully now it all comes clear.
So the big gripe I have, is that this big secret that the Zhat Vash guard is that AI
will destroy the galaxy in the future, so time travel. And I am disappointed. Organics
vs the Machine, it’s been done before. A lot. Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, Orville,
Mass Effect, Doctor Who literally days ago and even semgging Red Dwarf have all done
this storyline. I expect Star Trek to do better than just play along with established tropes
and unless they’re going to be bringing something new to the table with the way they
tell it, I remain unconvinced of the strength of this worn narrative scaffolding, that has
been used in so many science fiction universes. Point being, I’m tired of “oh no, robots
are evil”. Evil Robots are boring and a dime a dozen-… God I’m empathising with
the Master from Doctor Who. So onto a lore section and I think my rant
at the end there has uncovered some ideas that I’m going to follow on. The Federation’s
history with AI. Well, actually I’m probably going to do a whole video on that topic as
it’s pretty expansive, but we can look at the basics.
Starfleet has long experimented with the creation of artificial life. In fact to operate a complex
Starship, one needs a powerful computer to process its myriad of functions. Such computer
cores spanned several decks and were isoliner based. While not sentient, they would develop
patterns and could accept vast quantities of information. However, all their programming
was regulated and never truly self-aware, never sentient. In fact in the TNG episode
“Emergence”, they became concerned that the ship was developing sentience, crossing
that illusive line between simulated life and the real. Spoilers, it wasn’t, but it
goes to show how close those lines have blurred at times.
Of course, one of Picard’s foundational episodes is Data’s trial to decide if he
has rights, but this case was solely for Data at the time although setting precedents throughout
the Federation. It was this field of work that Maddox continued to work in, trying to
recreate Soong’s methods and failing for years. But what exactly set Data aside from
other robotic lifeforms created by the UFP? Was it his decision making powers? A computer
can be taught to prioritise and a computer can even makes mistakes. Awareness of self
and preservation? Data raises this point to argue that the Exocomp repair tools are sentient
and the crew of the enterprise decided that a handful of replicating nanobots were sentient
after Wesley Crusher accidently reprogrammed them and they got into the ship’s computer
core. In Star Trek Discovery, there’s a whole
season dedicated to a rogue AI called control which started as an adaptive threat assessment
system and clearly could learn, evolve, plan and replicate but it didn’t consider itself
alive. But then it’s questioning its own existence and therefore self-aware. The M5
computer designed by Richard Daystrom, yes, the founder of that institute, went haywire
and although incredibly complex, I’d argue was merely a simulated intelligence as it
was talked into a faulty logical paradox and blue screen’d..
Then of course there are those that are not hardware at all, but software consciousness.
Creations like Lewis Zimmerman’s Emergency Hologram program. Inspired by the accidental
creation of Moriarty on the USS Enterprise, which is yet another confusing line between
simulated and real intelligence, Zimmerman would also set in motion another argument
for the decades. Originally the Medical Holograms were simply simulated as could be but aware
of their limitations. They could learn new medical techniques and incorporate new data
to remain relevant, but intended on no level to be properly sentient. This was all changed
when Voyager’s EMH Doctor was left running full time and replaced the entire medical
team. His programming continued to grow and adapt and he desired to expand his faculties
beyond his design. He was self-aware from the start, but at some point, he became truly
alive. He even wrote works of fiction that made their way into his counterparts back
in the Alpha Quadrant. Although Emergency Holograms clearly still exist, I suspect their
programming is now probably severely limited in comparison to the original Doctor. Starfleet
has the capabilities to create sentient holograms, I suspect that they now have conscious limits
in place on how far such a program can develop. I suspect this might be the reason that holographic
work forces are no longer common and instead, Starfleet turned to Synths. The Daystom A500s
as they called, were not sentient but could be taught to mimic required tasks as intended.
Being limited by their hardware, there was no possibility that they could evolve beyond
a certain point, however as the Synth attack demonstrated, clearly something was overlooked.
As of yet we don’t have clear answers, as nor does the Federation so as a precaution,
the development of AI and synthetic life was halted. But as an audience, we clearly saw
evidence of hacking. So Starfleet’s history with artificial life
has always been treading a fuzzy line, one that is tough to answer in real philosophy,
let alone the sci-fi universe of Trek. What is consciousness? What is frequently shown
however, is when sentience is recognised, proven or even suspected, Starfleet takes
the issue very seriously and any being deemed alive, is respected. This is the big issue
behind my trepidation to see an AI vs Organic life narrative play out in Star Trek, because
Starfleet has always approached AI with an open heart even if not always aware of the
emergence of such. They try. Maybe that will be the whole twist explored in later narratives.
That the only reason AI got hostile was that the Federation started treating it as hostile
and that can be undone. Well speculation over, as is my review it
seems. Thank you for watching my breakdown of “Nepenthe” and some salient lore for
the unfolding series. Thanks again for watching, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you all laters.
Goodbye! Bonus lore facts: Riker mentions the Kzinti,
which were a feline-esc species first seen in the animated series and natural predators.
I guess Nepenthe is a tempting target for some pirates or maybe local populous of hunters.
Either way, I’ll CAT’ch you later.