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| Picard and Tallinn discover Q trying to manipulate an astronaut into quitting an upcoming mission. |
Original Air Date: Mar. 31, 2022. Written by: Cindy Appel. Directed by: Jonathan Frakes.
THE PLOT:
The Watcher, who looks exactly like Picard's housekeeper/would-be lover Laris, is actually Tallinn (Orla Brady). She is wary of Picard and doesn't like time travelers in general. When Picard introduces himself by name, however, her attitude changes. She has been sent to protect the timeline as it relates to one specific person: Picard's ancestor, Renée (Penelope Mitchell).
Renée is an astronaut assigned to the upcoming Europa mission. Picard isn't sure what role she ends up playing, as records for the century before First Contact are fragmented. All he knows for sure is that Q is trying to manipulate her into dropping out of the mission, and that he's close to succeeding!
Q has also made contact with Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner), a geneticist whose daughter (Isa Briones) suffers from a rare condition. Q offers a cure... at a price. Meanwhile, Jurati lets her guard down, giving the Borg Queen the very opening she's been waiting for...
CHARACTERS:
Picard: Despite the shock of Tallinn's resemblance to Laris, he quickly realizes that this is a different individual and focuses on winning her trust. He is outraged when he sees Q acting as Renée's therapist, and that spark of anger fans his determination to take action.
Dr. Jurati: I've been expecting her to make a mistake with the Borg Queen, but I anticipated a tiny lapse, a letting down of her guard at the worst possible moment. Instead, Jurati's brain falls out. She sleeps in Chateau Picard, leaving the ship unguarded and the Queen free to work her mischief. This is the exact type of bad writing that annoys the heck out of me, as Jurati is transformed into a complete imbecile so that Plot can happen.
Raffi: While rescuing Rios, Raffi briefly mistakes one of the detainees for Elnor. The young man does resemble Elnor, but she has a split-second full-on hallucination (which conveniently allows Evan Evagora to get paid this week). Guilt and stress has pushed Raffi to the edge of snapping, something that's not going unnoticed by Seven.
Tallinn: The Watcher, who has been sent to Earth to protect an aspect of the timeline - in her case, just one specific individual of importance. Picard connects this to Kirk's encounter with Gary Seven in the TOS episode Assignment: Earth. Orla Brady remains terrific, and she makes Tallinn a different character than Laris. Tallinn is nothing but brusque and businesslike until she starts talking about Renée - and then, as she speaks of her accomplishments, her voice warms and a smile appears, conveying maternal pride.
Renée Picard: At the end of the last episode, we saw Q try and fail to affect the mind of a young woman. Renée is that person, and she's apparently the figure at the heart of the season arc. She's decidedly life-sized, anxious about the mission and fearful that she isn't ready for the responsibility, and it's those anxieties that Q seems intent on preying upon.
Adam Soong: Brent Spiner returns as yet another member of the Soong dynasty. Adam has that Soong arrogance. Speaking before a board that's in the process of judging him, he's imprudent enough to demand that they think of him as a god, which goes over about as well as you'd expect. Still, he's more relatable than the various other Dr. Soongs the franchise has introduced. He's amusingly cranky and impatient, and he's motivated by his daughter's genetic illness. When Q dangles a cure for her condition, he resigns himself to doing whatever is asked, stating: "I am a hostage to you, sir."
Kore Soong: Soong's daughter, played by Isa Briones. While this is a lot of doppelgangers for one episode, I can just about handwave it: Soji was designed to be Data's daughter, after all, and it's not beyond reason that Data's design was based on the actual daughter of one of his creator's ancestors. In this episode, Kore is more plot device than anything else, existing as a motivator for her father. Still, the episode shows that father and daughter have a close relationship, with her teasing him over the very elements of his speech that guaranteed him a frosty reception.
Borg Queen: She has nothing but patience as she meticulously probes the security on the ship until she finds a gap. Then she takes pleasure in calling Jurati to her. Her interactions with Jurati remain those of a toxic lover, as she insists that the other woman will always be alone without her and that she is her only hope. The result... likely isn't what she expected, but she improvises quickly.
Q: His powers may be diminished, but that doesn't mean that he isn't dangerous. He retains a universe's worth of knowledge and a knack for manipulation, and he uses these against both Renée and Adam. It's still not clear what end he's working toward, but he clearly feels as much urgency in achieving his goal as Picard does about stopping him.
THOUGHTS:
We're all hostages to what we love. The only way to truly be free is to love nothing. How meaningless would that be?"
-Q seems to be talking about more than just his coercion of Adam Soong.
Right now, my big question is what Q is actually doing. This episode strongly indicates that he altered history by stopping Renée from joining the mission. But what if that's exactly wrong? What if her doubts about being ready are correct, and Q's original interference was getting her to go on the mission when she should have stayed? Picard admits that the records about her career are incomplete. Sure, she went into space - but what if that was a later mission and not this one? It was just a thought that sprang to mind while I was watching this episode.
Fly Me to the Moon sees the season arc starting to come into focus. Renée is officially introduced, with her upcoming mission made the focus for both Q and Picard. Adam and Kore Soong are introduced; exactly how Q plans to use them is not yet clear, but at least the building blocks are placed. Tallinn is introduced as a new ally (at least for now), and by episode's end the plot seems ready to start properly moving.
The most intriguing thread of the past few episodes has been the interactions of Jurati and the Borg Queen. In this episode, their scenes end up being the weakest element. Director Jonathan Frakes has some fun evoking horror movie vibes with the Queen, but the script gets there by having Jurati behave with implausible stupidity. Couldn't the same end have been reached without the script undermining the very intelligence the Queen finds so fascinating?
My issues with that thread aside, Fly Me to the Moon is a much better episode than Watcher. Transitions are smoother and, save for the rescue of Rios that ties up the dangling threads from Watcher, the rest ends up linking to Renée and her upcoming flight. Where Watcher felt choppy, this episode's parts feel like they're working together.
It certainly doesn't hurt that this episode brings Orla Brady back to the show. Even in a new role, she and Patrick Stewart retain strong screen chemistry, and their scenes together are enjoyable. This episode also sees Q's most substantial role so far this season, and John de Lancie is excellent as usual. I particularly enjoyed his scenes opposite Brent Spiner, whose Adam Soong promises to be an interesting character in his own right.
The episode ends by setting up a Mission: Impossible style infiltration of a high-security event, which promises some fun for the next episode. But lest things go too smoothly for our heroes, there is a last little wrinkle that takes us to the end credits.
OVERALL:
Jurati leaving the Borg Queen unguarded is enough for me deduct one point from the episode's score. That aside, I enjoyed Fly Me to the Moon. It's still an episode mostly concerned with setting up plot pieces, but it feels very much as if the season arc is kicking into gear. Most importantly, I found this episode a lot more entertaining than the previous installment.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
Previous Episode: Watcher
Next Episode: Two of One
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