WHY WE LIKE IT: Attitudes explained.
WHY WE DON'T: No Worf & Raffi!
REVIEW: The past year has given us "Kobayashi Maru" in Discovery, "Kobayashi" in Prodigy and now "No Win Scenario" in Picard. Come on guys. But I admit this is the most appropriate episode of the three to tag with the concept. The Titan is sinking down into a gravity well at the center of a nebula that isn't a nebula, and which is draining the ship's power and sending out waves of disruptive energy. Despair overtakes much of the crew, including Riker who was already borderline, his atheism having precluded any afterlife for his son and his hollowness having mined his relationship with Deanna. That seems a bit of a delayed reaction (but grief can be), and mostly in service of Picard's story. It triggers the Riker-Picard conflict and it makes Riker constantly beg Picard to go and talk with his son before it's too late. He'll be brought out of his funk by a pep talk from Beverly who has figured out the energy waves indicate a pattern consistent with childbirth and that there might be a way to ride the final wave out of there if the energy can be siphoned into the warp engines via the nacelle vents. There's some technobabble involved, and once Riker adds his own quirk to the plan, he agrees to it. Picard gets to say "Engage". Shaw and Seven race against the clock to plug and unplug wires. Asteroids get in the way (Jack asking for trust as he mans the radar - after we're told sensors don't work, whatever - is a rather lame suspense builder). Riker throws one at the Shrike (ahh, there's the Riker I know and love). It's a fairly exciting SF sequence, which ends with the birth of space squids/jellyfish, more of less telegraphed when Picard's example for what might be birthed was the Farpoint aliens. They don't appear to be the same, but could be given how effects have evolved, so I wish they'd been completely different to rid us of the coincidence and confusion. Riker calls Deanna, this wondrous sight and impossible escape have put him on the mend.
A series of flashbacks supports this story, taking us 5 years prior when Picard is assailed by fannish cadets at Guinan's bar. You think his stories and lessons are meant to correlate with what's happening in the present - the stuff about hope, about working together, etc. - but this is secretly the story of why Jack decided not to meet his old man. As it is revealed, he was sitting at the bar that day and asked a question, and Picard point-blank said Starfleet was his family and he needed no other. But of course, that's the kind of thing you say in front of brash cadets to inspire them, and because it's such a personal question, it's really none of the attendees' businesses. Still, Jack took it to heart and left, bitter. (My own bitterness has probably more to do with Picard retelling the events of "Darmok" and confusing Tamarians with Talarians.) We had clues to this earlier, whether SOMEone listening to old logs from the Enterprise in the first episode (Jack?), or his contention in Chapter 3 that the bigger the legend, the bigger the disappointment. The bar gets a LOT of play in this series, as the standing set also shows up in the holodeck as a sanctuary for the Titan crew, and the setting for Picard chatting with Jack. They talk about hairlines, Jack not being a wine person, and about the OG Jack Crusher (a name Picard would also have given his son). Shaw crashes the party and gets to tell his own story, that of his random survival at Wolf 359 and the issues he still has with Locutus of Borg. Again, there were clues to this before, but we now see how personal it all his for him.
Meanwhile, Captain Vadic does something weird, turning her hand into the face(ish) of her boss. I'm calling this the Hand Link, personally, but it's certainly a new trick for the changelings. The face tells her she's expendable and to go into the non-nebula to get the "asset" (Jack) even at the cost of her ship and life (though how is she supposed to bring Jack back if the Shrike is destroyed?). To do so, she has to jettison the portal weapon, which is why she can be caught out by Riker's shot put tactic. As for the changeling aboard the Titan, Seven is tasked with hunting it down and her conversation with Shaw on the subject is, I think, when the audience finally decides that the admitted dick is a really fun character. Yeah, he hates Picard for Worlf 359, but so did Sisko, and he's the coolest. She does rumble the changeling, but it escapes, and when it later turns up in nacelle control as Ensign La Forge, it pays off a Chapter 3 scene in which La Forge pointedly called Seven by her chosen name out of respect. The changeling doesn't and gets phasered for its trouble (more on this in Chapter 5).
LESSON: You're only as good as your crew.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Good hero moments for the cast (Shaw included), but a lot of the jeopardy and solutions are based on technobabble you just have to accept as stated.
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