Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Confronts The Truth In “Imposters”

“Imposters”

Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 5 – Debuted Thursday, March 16, 2023
Written by Cindy Appel & Chris Derrick
Directed by Dan Liu

A solid episode steeped in the paranoia that has been building nicely kicks off a second arc for the season with a big assist from a returning familiar face.

Captain Riker, please explain how all my Chopin has been replaced with Coltrane.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

RECAP

“I know what you really are.”

We pick up where we left off with another Jack vision, but those visions are getting violent as he sees himself (in Starfleet uniform) gunning down members of the Titan bridge crew. As we snap back, his eyes are glow red, so that’s a thing. The Titan has limped to the edge of Federation space as the gang ponders how the Changeling got onto the ship, so Beverly decides to investigate and do an autopsy. Rethinking old Dominion War safety protocols will be a job for Starfleet, who Shaw reports is on their way, so it is time for Riker and Picard to “go home and face the music”—but out of courtesy, Liam gives them and (now reinstated) Seven a moment to get their “BS story straight.” Jean-Luc lets everyone know he is going to take the fall for the whole shuttle-stealing operation as the USS Intrepid shows up, ordering the Titan to power down and await a security team that refuses to use the transporter and is shuttling over, which even Shaw thinks is strange. After getting in a few more gleeful digs at Riker and Picard, Shaw escorts them to face the security team, led by none other than Ro F-ing Laren. Holy Bajoran, Batman!

At the behest of Picard, Seven gets to Jack to hide him in plain sight by giving him a Starfleet uniform… the same one in his murdery vision. Uh-oh. Her security team is dispatched to hunt for Jack while Ro’s Enterprise-D reunion isn’t going well; she’s all business talking about treason and Jean-Luc is stunned the officer he took under his wing before betraying Starfleet to the Maquis is even in uniform. After he accuses her of “posing” as a commander, she fills him in on going (back) to prison and being recruited (again) into Starfleet. She also proves she isn’t a Changeling through the old-fashioned slice-of-the-hand-to-reveal-blood technique. With perfect timing, Beverly gets a message to Jean-Luc that her autopsy revealed the Changelings have figured out a way to fake blood (and organs too… yuck). As Picard and Ro spar over betrayal and honor, he notes she is no longer wearing her Bajoran earring, which used to be a big deal to her identity, and she is curiously focused on knowing more about his son Jack but fails to ask anything about Vadic or the Shrike. Hmm. On the way to sickbay, the Bajoran security officer pulls a phaser on Picard. “Change of plans, Admiral.” Ro-oh.

No, I don’t want to reminisce about the time I was turned into a little girl.

“Sacrifice is required again.”

Over on M’Talas Prime, it looks like Worf spent the time off from last week’s episode training Raffi, sparring with her as a way to temper her impulsiveness and show off his new warrior monk zen meditation lifestyle. Finally, his Starfleet handler contacts them, texting them a denial to the request for details on Daystrom. Told to “find another way,” Worf assumes the handler is under pressure from above, but Raffi doesn’t seem to be learning her impatience control and declares she will just break in on her own. Worf remains calm and says he has another lead, a Vulcan gangster named Krinn who is probably the guy that broke in and stole the weapon that Sneed brokered. So it’s time for the pair to hit the mean streets of District Six, where they find the locals cowering in fear due to how they took down the Ferengi gang boss. Raffi uses their new lowlife cred to declare she wants info on Krinn, and she wants it now, while Worf chooses this time to meditate and wait for the inevitable confrontation.

Eventually, Krinn and his gang show up and the Vulcan immediately starts monologuing about pride and downfall… this planet has some really dramatic criminals. Worf demands answers, claiming to have the upper hand, but Krinn responds by shooting right at (and through) Raffi. After being exposed as a hologram, the real Raffi is captured above. So, about that upper hand… Turns out Krinn considered Sneed a brother from another lowlife mother, so revenge on the two responsible for the Ferengi’s death is logical. Given a choice to both be killed or fight to the death with knives, Worf stays focused on the mission as he talks of sacrifice and picks up his blade. With neither holding back, we get some fighty fighty stuff and then stabby stabby with Worf going down, saying it was a good day to die (naturally). A triumphant Krinn lets Raffi know she works for him now, but the victory is short-lived; soon enough all his goons are dispatched from behind by Worf, who isn’t quite as dead as it appeared. That meditation stuff includes a new heart-rate-lowering trick, but he is losing a lot of blood and running out of time so Krinn sees the logic in handing over his magic key to get past the (repeatedly mentioned) super AI guarding Daystrom. What could that possibly be?

Wait, you call the admiral “JL”?

“It’s all so much worse than we thought.”

Ducking into the holodeck, which appears stuck on the 10 Forward program, Picard quickly turns off the safety protocols and pulls his own phaser on Ro. With “tell me who you really are,” the pair throws down with a history of their relationship and Ro’s eventual defection to the Maquis, which Jean-Luc took as a personal betrayal. He accuses her of being driven by ego. Ro lets him have it over his “relentless judgment.” At mutually assured gunpoint things continue to escalate until they both come full circle, agreeing the other broke their hearts. The riveting moment pivots as the heightened emotion is enough for both to agree they are who they say they are. She lets her former captain know why she is really there: She needs his help. Starfleet has been compromised at the highest level by Changelings and no one will listen to her. She thinks even the Intrepid is controlled by the shifters. All she has left are two assets that are close to the truth (gee, I wonder who). She has transferred most of the Titan crew to the Intrepid and wants him to take what is left and run while she buys him some time. Her two very shifty-looking security subordinates are not happy when she informs them they are leaving as she says a tearful goodbye to the admiral, handing him her Bajoran earring as a parting gift. Wow, that’s a lot to take in.

On the bridge, Picard quickly briefs Shaw on the growing conspiracy, imploring the skeptical captain to escape. Things come to a point as Ro’s (definitely Changeling) lieutenants beam back to the Titan, determined to find Jack, leaving her a ticking bomb as a parting gift. Ro calls the Titan to let Picard know she is using the little time she has left to give him what he gave her all those years ago… a fighting chance. Picard now sees her truth and asks for forgiveness as she flies her shuttle into one of the Intrepid’s nacelles. OMG. As the other Starfleet ship turns to attack, it becomes clear they are all being set up to take the blame. Captain Shaw finally calls for red alert as we begin yet another wait for the Titan’s warp drive to warm up or something. As for Jack, the Intrepid security goons finally locate him, but this is no problem as he becomes Action Jack(son), effortlessly taking out all four Changelings. Who is this guy? After the ship finally warps away, Riker and Picard share a moment mourning the loss of Ro, with Will recognizing the significance of her gift; the earring has all the files from her investigation. It’s in their hands now… and just in time for an incoming call from one of Ro’s assets. In another surprise (but not really) reunion, it’s Mr. Worf. We end in sickbay, where Shaw is impressed the kid took down four Changelings but Bev is more concerned about her son who confesses he didn’t even know they were shapeshifters. He comes clean about the nightmares and how “there is something very wrong” with him. You think?

Merde.

ANALYSIS

The truth is out there

After last week closed up the first act of the season set around the nebula, a strong episode kicks off the second act as the team starts to dig in to the growing conspiracy. The paranoia-filled episode was full of questions and fake-outs. The title “Imposters” had many layers, literal and thematic, through both main storylines. It may also have been a time and money saver, but never seeing the bridge or captain of the Intrepid added to the ominous mystery as it faced down the Titan. This confrontation nicely starts to take the story from the frontier and back into the larger world of the Federation, Starfleet, and the growing stakes and threat posed by the Changeling conspiracy. This is all a welcome next step following the effective but more insular recent episodes.

The heart of “Imposters” was driven by surprise guest star Michelle Forbes returning to her recurring role of Ro Laren from The Next Generation with a masterful performance that should have kept the audience guessing all the way until we got another one of those pivotal confrontation scenes that are becoming a hallmark of this season. Throwing in just enough backstory exposition to catch you up with a little assist from Riker dropping in stuff from her first (“Ensign Ro“) and last (“Preemptive Strike”) appearances, the heightened emotion between Picard and Ro to complete their arc was satisfying. Unlike the way some legacy characters were treated in previous seasons, this time a sad but noble death was well-earned and even necessary to demonstrate the stakes.

No seriously, Guinan’s Ten Forward on the Enterprise was named for this bar from old Los Angeles, I even went there.

With the return of Ro, picking up on the M’Talas story, and a spotlight on the mystery surrounding Jack getting top attention, most of our other characters were relegated to the background, especially Riker and Seven. Beverly did get to do some science as she has essentially taken over Titan’s sickbay (poor Dr. Ohk). After the camaraderie of the trial by fire shared by all last week, the character of Shaw was kind of reset. While Todd Stashwick remains a delight of the season, the unnecessary turbolift ride was an odd tonal shift. Sure it’s always fun to hear his twist on famous moments in TNG history, but it felt like a redo of the episode 1 dinner scene, with the same beats and dialogue. That said, Stashwick (paired with epic eye-rolling from Michelle Hurd’s Raffi) provided what little levity there was in a season that has previously found better and more organic ways to insert a bit of humor into the otherwise serious business going on.

It was good to return to the Worf and Raffi investigation storyline, and there were some nice character beats between the two with Michelle Hurd and Michael Dorn showing great chemistry in both their verbal and physical sparring. We can see growth for both characters in this new mentoring relationship. Like Sneed, Krinn was an interesting take on a familiar Star Trek alien, here presenting us with a Vulcan as a gangster. Guest star Kirk Acevedo finds a way to convey both menace and Vulcan logic. Hopefully, this is the end of the District Six storyline. The sets, of course, were spectacular, but we have gone through enough layers of this underworld and it’s time to bring these storylines together and move on to the constantly mentioned Daystrom Station; the repeated mentions of an AI security system surely hint at something familiar to come, and maybe Krinn’s key is also something (or someone) we have seen before. As a side note, it was a bit strange that Ro didn’t mention to Picard that her two operatives were Raffi and Worf, but this is one of those things the show does to set up the fun surprise call at the end of the episode.

This is my sickbay now.

You don’t know Jack

Once again, Ed Speleers was impressive as Jack fell deeper into his own nightmares and plays what feel like multiple versions of Jack. While not conclusive, the plot moved forward with more mysteries about Jack’s true nature: It is becoming clear there is definitely something odd about him, with more evidence for the varying theories about this coming up and likely inspiring some new ones. The voice in his head saying “Find me. Hear me. Connect us.” is definitely important, and for what it’s worth, the closed caption identified the voice as Beverly—and it does sound like Gates McFadden. What’s going on with Jack and his connection to the Changelings (and Vadic’s boss) is certainly something we will explore in an upcoming analysis on the site, but the way these new visions were woven into the show was very effective and compelling, Speleers’ performance enhanced with sharp editing and visual effects.

Beverly’s moments in sickbay, once you got past poor Sidney’s lunch returning after seeing herself as a corpse, also moved the ball forward a bit on the plot. It’s now clear these aren’t common Changelings, which possibly explains the more “meaty” look of their morphing effect. Her conclusion that they are an “evolution” is intriguing and adds to the heightened paranoia that started with her “trust no one” warning in episode one. It’s curious that Starfleet Changeling security protocols don’t scan for DNA, which is the one thing they apparently can’t replicate. (Someone should look into that.) Digging into Ro’s files should be fun, as it looks like Starfleet command is riddled with Changelings, which does bring back “Conspiracy” vibes along with the return to “we are everywhere” Dominion War paranoia. It was also good to return to the big plan, which all appears to be focused on the upcoming Frontier Day and the clearly ill-advised idea to gather the entire fleet in one place. All in all, for fans watching for the world-building and plot progression, this episode should satisfy.

I am just a humble space doctor.

Final thoughts

Season 3 hits the midway point and is still going strong. “Imposters” isn’t the best episode of the season, but it still delivers plenty of emotion and action and progress to avoid the midseason doldrums that have previously plagued this show. Excellent production values, music, sound, and design remain consistent, but what makes this season truly rise above is the crisp writing and compelling performances, especially the guest stars and “special guest stars.” Hopefully, we won’t have long to wait for more familiar faces to show up, but even with the strong desire to see the gang all together, Picard season 3 is to be commended for playing the long game to allow each newly introduced element time to breathe and add more life to the show, even in heroic death.

Sorry, I am hard of hearing, can you repeat that last passive-aggressive thing you said?

BITS

• Stardate: 78186.03
• Riker’s voice authorization: Riker 3-8-Alpha-Echo.
• Captain Shaw invokes emergency order 762-Alpha, which may be a protocol related to Changeling infiltration.
• First appearance of the 25th-century USS Intrepid (NCC-79520). Production designer Dave Blass revealed it is a “Duderstadt Class” and designed in collaboration by Bill Krause and Doug Drexler (named after Drexler’s late wife). It is the fifth ship in Star Trek canon named Intrepid, although each has a different registry.
• Picard suggested they contact Admiral Janeway, indicating Kathryn Janeway from Voyager (and Prodigy) is still active in 2401 with a high position, likely Commander in Chief of Starfleet.
• He also mentioned trying to contact Chancellor Roll. Traditionally used for alien civilizations, Chancellor is a previously unknown position within the Federation, which is led by a President.
• Raffi’s hologram used a mobile emitter, first introduced on Star Trek: Voyager, which was spotted by Krinn.
• Krinn was played by Kirk Acevedo, who played José Ramse on 12 Monkeys (EP Terry Matalas’ former show). Ramse was like a brother to the lead character James Cole, played by Aaron Stanford, who played the Ferengi Sneed, described by Krinn as his “brother.”
• Worf’s search for those associated with Sneed included Brunt, Morn, and Thadiun Okona.
• Captain Shaw needled Picard and Riker on their history of saving the galaxy with a few specific digs…
  • “Hot-dropped the saucer of the Enterprise-D” (Star Trek: Generations)
  • “Threw the Prime Directive out the window to snog a villager on Bakku” (Star Trek: Insurrection)
  • “Nearly wiped out all of humanity by creating a time paradox in the Devron system” (TNG finale “All Good Things…”)
• This is a trope not unique to Picard, but shouldn’t turning off safety protocols on the holodeck have a “Are you sure you want to do that?” prompt?
• Picard offered Ro Laren Bajoran springwine, a beverage first mentioned on Deep Space Nine.
• Picard spoke Bajoran for the first time, a language heard periodically on DS9 mostly in prayers and ceremonies.

Sir, there is something oozy about the Intrepid captain’s voice but they promise they aren’t a Changeling.

More to come

We will discuss the episode in detail on Friday’s episode of All Access Star Trek. every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek podcast covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean and South Korea. It also streams internationally on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

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