Star Trek: Picard - 10 Things About The Show That Still Don't Make Sense

The most recent contribution to the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Picardexplores what became of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the rest of the crew of the USS Enterprise-Eafter Star Trek: Nemesis. Picking up two decades after the final Star Trek: The Next Generation film, Picard is a recluse that must find his purpose again, despite his closest friends being lightyears away, and the Federation being a paranoid organization prone to xenophobia and isolationism.

While all fans celebrated the return of one of the most beloved characters in the entire franchise, they weren't as enthusiastic with the plot of his series. Several things about Star Trek: Picard didn't make sense, and they're outlined below.

10 PICARD HELPING DAHJ IMMEDIATELY

The meeting between the mysterious Dahj and Jean-Luc Picard is a truly bizarre one that feels anything but natural. Picard, who has been a recluse on his family's estate for decades since leaving Starfleet, doesn't seem all that perturbed that a stranger has made it past his security systems.

Apparently all it takes is his faithful canine companion Number One running up to her and wagging his tail for the once extremely wary and private former captain to throw caution to the wind and open up Chateau Picard to her.

9 PICARD PICKING A FIGHT WITH A ROMULAN

Jean-Luc Picard distinguished himself among many of Starfleet's well-known captains as being first and foremost a diplomat. He wasn't a "whatever it takes to save the day" officer like James Kirk or Benjamin Sisko, but one that favored thoughtful mediation to fisticuffs.

Therefore it was highly irregular to see Picard traipse into a canteen on Vashti and pick a fight with a Romulan brigand. While it made for an engaging confrontation involving swords and heroism by Elnor, it didn't ring true to Picard's character.

8 THE XB'S

Viewers are introduced to the Artifact, an abandoned Borg Cube severed from the Collective now in the hands of the Romulans. A Borg Reclamation Project is underway within its cavernous walls, led by Hugh, an ex-Borg (XB) who helps Borg have their implants removed.

Despite being cybernetic themselves, the XB's serve no central function to the synthetic storyline, and seem like they're only around for shocking displays of violence. They're either wounded by Narissa, or dissected for parts like Icheb. By the end of the season, Seven of Nine isn't even leading them anymore, which makes them more adrift in the Star Trek universe than ever.

7 CURRENCY

Captain Rios and his ship the La Sirena are commissioned by Jean-Luc Picard to take him to find the synthetic Soji, a quest that will take them across several quadrants. Rios expects to be handsomely compensated when Picard needs to go to the dangerous Freecloud as well as the synthetic homeworld of Coppelius.

In Federation Space (in fact all of Star Trek) the exchange of currency is highly irregular given that it's no longer in circulation on Earth and other planets. Federation Credits have been mentioned in episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it's unclear if that type of payment is being utilized in Star Trek: Picard. 

6 HUGH AND ELNOR STAYING BEHIND ABOARD THE ARTIFACT

At the end of Episode 6, when Jean-Luc Picard locates Soji aboard the Artifact and needs to escape, Hugh takes them to the Borg Queen's chamber. Hidden from the rest of the Romulans on the ship, it has a Sikarian Spatial Trajector which can instantly teleport them lightyears away.

Hugh informs Picard only he and Soji can escape before the Romulans find them, and volunteers to stay behind to hold them off. Elnor stays behind as well, seeing Hugh's cause as an appropriately "lost" one. However, even after the pair leave, it's quite a while before any Romulans find the chamber, indicating there was plenty of time for both Hugh and Elnor to have escaped with them.

5 AGNES JURATI AND THE MURDER OF BRUCE MADDOX

However agonizing it was to do, Agnes Jurati murdered her former colleague/lover in cold blood. Cyberneticist Bruce Maddox didn't have to die, but Jurati had been compromised by Commodore Oh and a vision of an apocalyptic future, and felt the universe would be better off without Maddox in it.

It's briefly mentioned she'll face brig time, but after the season finale, she's standing on the bridge of Captain Rios's ship with the rest of Picard's misfit crew. Was she pardoned because of her assistance in stopping Armageddon? Did Starfleet look the other way?

4 COMMODORE OH'S DECEPTION

Commodore Oh, the half-Vulcan half-Romulan Head of Starfleet Security, entered Starfleet sometime during Dr. Noonien Soong's breakthrough in the development of synthetic lifeforms with the positronic brain.

Secretly a member of the nebulous Zhat Vash, her goal was to stop synthetic life from causing an eventual apocalypse. She was able to somehow hide in plain sight in Starfleet for decades, despite that in Star Trek: The Next Generation, an episode featured Admirals accusing a Starfleet cadet with only a quarter Romulan heritage of being a spy.

3 THE UNEVENTFUL DOOMSDAY RESPONSE

In the exciting season finale, Commodore Oh has cast aside her facade and revealed herself as General Nedar of the Romulan Star Empire, with a fleet of ships poised to blow up the synthetic commune on Coppelius. Captain Picard and Agnes Jurati attempt to buy time before Starfleet arrives and Dooms Day can be averted.

Meanwhile, on Coppelius, Picard's foolhardy mission inspires Soji's compassion, and she shuts down the beacon to the ancient race of synthetics coming through another dimension to crush organic life. At this point, the Romulans are allowed to shrug their shoulders and head back to the Neutral Zone like nothing happened, despite having planned for this event for hundreds of years.

2 THE PLOT DEVICE

The series finale was full of several occasions of narrative imperative, in which events, characters, or objects were introduced in whatever way the plot necessitated. Whatever made the plot work was given priority, including a mysterious device from the synthetics on Coppelius.

This device might as well have literally been called a "Plot Device," because it functionally made anything the user wanted come true just by "using their imagination." This included everything from fixing the unfixable on Captain Rios's ship to multiplying dozens of it in front of the Romulan fleet.

1 SEVEN AND RAFFI ROMANCE

After Picard and Co. save the day in the series finale, many new horizons await the characters in the aftermath. Picard learns how to function in a new body, Soji learns how to live a new life as a synthetic, and apparently Raffi and Fenris Ranger Seven of Nine pursue a romance.

The romance came as a surprise to most fans, who had been focusing on the pairing off of Agnes Jurati and Captain Rios, and Soji and Narek. When did Seven of Nine and Raffi have time to develop such a strong bond, when Seven didn't even appear in half the episodes?

Source: screenrant.com