“The Bounty” is ‘Star Trek: Picard’s First Major Misstep This Season
The term “The Bounty” conjures up at least one specific meaning for Star Trek fans. Let’s see if it comes up! Hint: it does
Season three of Star Trek: Picard is great, isn’t it? It’s an exploration of beloved characters! It’s a chance for characters new and old to build fresh dynamics! And also Shaw is there – maybe the best new ‘Trek’ character to come along in decades.
The last two episodes especially were just spectacular. We get hope in the vast emptiness of space and then we witness one of the most potent character deaths in maybe the entire history of the franchise.
Anyway, “The Bounty” breaks the streak. It’s a mess so messy that I had to watch it multiple times to parse what was even going on. And in the spirit of that, let’s start with the most basic recap we can. This is just the broad strokes so we understand the framework before discussing where and how things go awry.
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To Boldly Recap “The Bounty”
Beverly figures out what’s wrong with Jack: he has Jean-Luc’s disease, Irumodic Syndrome. She treats it but there’s an inevitability here: the syndrome is a death sentence. Picard talks his son through it but can’t offer much in the way of help, just commiseration.
The Titan drops decoy buoys to keep Starfleet off their sent. Meanwhile, Worf and Raffi finally join the squad aboard the Titan. They bring a plan: go to Daystrom station, get the full manifest of the place, and find out what was stolen by the changelings. The away team consists of Riker, Raffi, and Worf. But as soon as the away team is on the station, ships swarm and the Titan flees. Picard promises they will return in an hour.
On the station, the team encounters an A.I. security system in the form of Data’s old holodeck nemesis, Moriarty. Riker hears a musical motif and recognizes it as “Pop Goes the Weasel” the very first thing he ever hears Data whistle back in “Encounter at Farpoint”. Riker whistles the tune, security shuts down, and the team finds an old-looking android that looks like Data, but holds the memories of Data, Lore, B-4, and Alton Soong. And also Daystrom’s manifest info.
Meanwhile, the Titan heads to a space museum that keeps a bunch of old, famous starships. Geordi La Forge runs the place and Picard wants his help. Unfortunately, Geordi is not interested because he doesn’t want to put his daughters in danger.
However, Sidney La Forge pressures her dad, partly with a speech and also partly by stealing the cloaking device from the HMS Bounty. The Titan can cloak therefore it can go back and rescue the away team.
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My Four Sons
As the Titan returns to Daystrom, the away team comes under fire from the crew of the Shrike. Riker winds up getting kidnapped but Worf and Raffi beam away with the old android in tow.
On board the Titan, Geordi investigates this android. He discovers that there’s no real way to integrate or isolate only one personality, so they have no idea who they’re going to get when they turn this thing on. But they do it anyway! And, wouldn’t you know it, they get Data! Data tells them what was stolen from Daystrom: the remains of Picard’s original body.
But then Data stops being Data and becomes Lore. And then he becomes B-4. And then he becomes Alton Soong. No time for that, though. On the Shrike, Riker gets the business end of some torturous interrogation. Riker insists he won’t break, but then he finds out that he’s not the only one kidnapped. His wife, Deanna Troi, is also aboard. Unless she is actually a changeling. Which is possible.
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To Boldly Review “The Bounty”
My spouse uses a term for episodes like this: “continuity porn”. It’s her way of saying that the writers spend too much time making references and not enough time telling a compelling story. “The Bounty” is continuity porn. I know it’s ungracious, but it’s time to get into the business of “just asking questions”. Ready?
Why is Moriarty the security A.I. on Daystrom station? Why would anything involving Data’s memories be built into the security system at Daystrom? In fact, why is this android the place where all the Daystrom data is stored? There’s also a holographic crow which I think is a reference to Data’s dreams. Why are there Data dream crows? The answer to all these questions is the same: continuity porn.
Heck, there’s literally a scene where Seven shows Jack a bunch of ships and he can name them all! And then they get all misty-eyed about it!
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On the Subject of Geordi La Forge
I love Geordi La Forge! He’s smart, he’s affable, he’s a ray of sunshine climbing through your window first thing in the morning. And that is why, at first, I was frustrated that so much of “The Bounty” circles around Geordi being curmudgeonly and unwilling to help. However, this is one of those “Old Man Skywalker” situations where it’s not so much that this is a bad story as much as it is a story I personally do not want.
It is nice seeing Geordi and Beverly hug it out. And I genuinely do enjoy the scenes where Geordi’s daughters struggle with him. Sidney and Jack going over their respective dad’s heads to steal the HMS Bounty’s cloaking device is cute as hell. Despite my misgivings, by the time Geordi comes around on helping thanks to Sidney’s not-so-gentle prodding, I found myself enjoying how this story plays out.
That being said, the very fact that the HMS Bounty from Star Trek IV – The Voyage Home just so happens to be there? Talk about continuity porn! And there’s literally a scene where Seven shows Jack a bunch of ships and he can name them all! And then they get misty-eyed! Continuity porn.
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DATAB4LOREWTFBBQ
In “The Bounty” someone points out that Data is dead. In fact, Data is dead twice over – kind of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer! And yet here he is! Still kicking! But this time he’s not just him, he’s also Lore, B-4, and Alton Soong. This is, to put it mildly, some real Brent Spiner nonsense.
In fact, if you are a long-time TNG fan, you likely remember the previous two times when Spiner plays multiple characters. One of those times is “A Fistful of Datas” which is a pretty good episode. The other time is “Masks” which is a terrible episode. Would you like to know why one works and the other does not? It’s because the former episode is a comedy. “The Bounty” like “Masks” does not acknowledge how silly all this is and that is part of why it doesn’t work.
I know some people like the first season of Star Trek: Picard, but, honestly, who was clamoring for more Alton Soong? We find out Alton’s fate and he also gets this deeply emotional speech about procreation as an addition. And all I could think the whole time was, “I might care about this speech if it was coming from a character I was invested in”.
I don’t want to belabor the point here, but “I am Lore, I am B-4, I am Soong, I am… more” is some of the stilted dialogue in Star Trek history.
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Questions, Queries, Quibbles
Skipping the Easter eggs section this week. Although, worth noting the tribbles still hate Klingons (a throwback to the TOS episode “The Trouble with Tribbles”) and the appearance of Kirk’s remains (maybe a reference to the William Shatner novel Star Trek: The Return). And while I’m not sure it lands, the bird from Data’s dreams originates with the episode “Birthright”. In that episode, Data leaps forward in his cognitive abilities, learning that in dreams he can take flight, like a bird.
Obviously, the big questions are “is that really Troi” and “what do the changelings want with Picard’s remains”. There’s also an interesting question here which is: what is the deal with Irumodic Syndrome? Is it possible that there’s more to it than meets the eye?
Since Alton Soong matters again suddenly, I’d like to suggest something: Picard Season One still matters in general. In the penultimate episode “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1” Picard seems to be a vessel for something else at one point. As his Irumodic Syndrome kicks into high gear, he speaks with a voice other than his own, one that welcomes the La Sirena to the planet below.
I wonder if this scene is relevant now. Is it possible that Picard and Jack’s Irumodic Syndrome connects to something larger? Whatever the changelings need Picard’s remains for also seems to connect with Jack. Might this relate to the fact that both men have Irumodic Syndrome? Just putting that out in the world.
In the meantime, “The Bounty” misses more than it hits making it the weakest Picard episode this season by far. Cross your fingers that the ship rights itself next week.
2/5 stars
