The sexy samurai is back, the Changelings are remaining in solid form, mention of the dominion war, Bajorans, Ro Laren, and the Maquis, did this episode start with the PornHub intro? Directed by Shadow and Bone, For All Mankind, and Strange New Worlds director, Dan Liu starts his two-episode run helming Star Trek: Picard. While Cindy Appel returns for her final episode following “Seventeen Seconds,” and is joined by story editor, staff writer, and last season’s “Hide and Seek” writer, Christopher B Derrick. If I’m honest, B Derrick is lacking a lot of credits to draw on.

Free from the amniotic fluid of space jellyfish, Jack is ruining all my desire to care about him by sleepwalking into killing everyone on the bridge, in his dreams anyway. With the Titan out of danger, Starfleet has been contacted by the reinstated Captain Shaw to try Admiral Picard and Captain Bill Riker for treason. While Seven is out here hiding Jack from the firing squad led by Ro Laren, and Bev is going back to high school by cutting a non-human open hoping to find answers. Now the Changelings can bleed and beat the blood tests in place post-Dominion War.

Typically, when I can do these three-paragraph opening run-downs as quickly and succinctly, it means I’m not too impressed with the episode. However, I don’t think that’s it. I don’t hate “Imposters,” it is a decent episode in its own right and nowhere near my hatred of seasons 1 and 2 (you might have noticed), but we’re in the refractory period following “No Win Scenario.” We’ve gotten through Act One, it was good which is a different show of form for Picard, and now we’re building back up in Act Two.

Ro Laren, originally supposed to be that Kira role being set up in TNG for DS9, was basically the introduction we got to the Bajorans. If you know the story of why it never happened, it is surprising to see Michelle Forbes return to the role she turned down continuing originally. Playing judge, jury, and executioner to her former Captain and Commander, Ro puts the Titan on lockdown and takes the old man she betrayed 30 years ago to the holo suite for a chat at gunpoint.

Meanwhile, the bald man’s sprog is out here imagining red stuff coming out of everywhere and killing everyone in those “We tricked you, didn’t we? You thought he was out of the daydream” scenes. It is a useful tool that is a heavy trope, but only when it is done correctly and sparingly. Here, in a 50-some-minute episode, it is overplayed somewhat. I don’t like it, and probably because I was finally coming around to Jack as a character, and now we’re going heavy on that whole mystery character thing again.

It is a means to an end, as it were, but I think it should have been done a little better. Much like how we’ve got Worf and Raffi surrounded in Cyberpunk 2077, it isn’t overplayed or overexposed, it is there and does the job, but doesn’t take up all the screen time as we feel like we’re progressing towards something. I say it every episode now, but we’ve not always had that feeling with Picard as a show. Something is pushing the characters forward instead of them chasing the actual plot both literally and metaphorically, which would be wrapped up in 20 minutes with a 30-minute denouement.

Take Ro. She’s brought onto the ship by Shaw, she’s pushing JL as Bev finds out that these Changelings have somewhat evolved to beat the biometric tests. Ro’s pushing him, Picard is pushing back, and of course, he notices the Bajoran earring is missing, which is a red herring, but it gives us tension and danger that the lead isn’t chasing after or running away from. It is the tension that has trapped us after it has been stumbled into. Again, comparing and contrasting, it is doing this better than both prior seasons.

It is a good episode, a good episode of Spy-Trek without trying to be a Val Kilmer and Lucy Gutteridge movie. Continuing from where we were last time out in “No Win Scenario,” the episode is about trust. Trust in your former officer, a Captain that still hates you, and trust that this former officer that wronged you is onto something with her two sets of boots on the ground investigating Avengers: Age of Ultron (2401 remake).

The secret agent Bajoran guiding the Klingon-Samurai and his pet human is Ro Laren. She’s been investigating why there have been twelve other Changeling incidents on starships within the fleet in recent months, why Catherine Piper’s lawyer dropped a building on another building, and who got into Daystrum and how. Just because some are too quick to be turned off by not getting a reference, Catherine Piper is Betty White’s character in Boston Legal, a great show starring James Spader who played Ultron, and Ultron was the one to bomb Sokovia with other bits of Sokovia. Is everyone in the back caught up? Let’s move on.

As I say, I don’t hate the episode, it is just that reset we’re going through and a little bit of flashbacks to seasons 1 and 2. Jack’s daydreaming and seeing the red stuff behind people or in transporter beams, it feels almost like we’re stepping back to the MacGuffin mystery box of season 1. Thankfully it is saved somewhat later on, it is just teething problems with doing this story that we’re going on versus what we’ve already seen from the series. I guess you could call this confession a bit of trauma dumping.

I think I said last time out, the character is fine but had previously done very little to make me care. The same could be said of Ed Speleers, a fine actor doing an ok job, but he isn’t leaping out at me. I’m not looking for Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Samuel L Jackson, or even Alan Alda, but even as I said last time, Todd Stashwick is standing out more to me. Jack just isn’t making that impression for whatever reason, even as his importance is heightened and shown. The saving grace of this somewhat mystery box is that it is put on a door baked in red light.

I probably wouldn’t worry too much about it, it is probably just Noel Fielding. Jokes and references no one gets but me aside, it feels better to have that “special” thing taken off of him personally. It might be in his head, but it isn’t quite literally the “you’re a wizard Harry…” I guess that’s two for two on the references to things written by grade-A astroturfers. Just replace the U with an E to get that one, and address the hate to the usual places.

Ultimately, I think “Imposters” is a good to great episode that somewhat solidifies that no, this isn’t Star Trek: Picard season 3. This is The Next Generation season 8. If anything, the only thing bringing me down on it is probably the fact we had a fantastic all-timer last time and now we’re back to building up to a peak in the rollercoaster. The metaphorical chain is linked, we’ve got the pieces in place as Starfleet is now overrun by Changelings that have framed the Titan, we’re now on the way to hit that second act, all hope is lost peak. I guess I’m more excited to get to the next episode than I’ve ever been with Picard.

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Star Trek: Picard "Imposters"

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Good spy-Trek.
• Ro Laren redemption.
• We're finally connecting the stories.
• A solid episode that is putting the rest of the season together.

Cons

• Do we need to keep doing the tease of MacGuffin characters?