'Star Trek: Picard': The many holograms of Captain Rios are a strange and distracting plot point
Spoiler alert for 'Broken Pieces' - Episode 8 of Season 1 of 'Star Trek: Picard'
One of our earliest scenes with Captain Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) sees him deep in conversation with himself. Quite literally, as he was conversing with a hologram of himself that, for reasons unknown, spoke with an entirely separate accent.
We saw one, maybe two more of those Rios-based holograms as the show went on - each with their own unique and arbitrary accent and ship designation - but it was never really touched upon for most of the season. In episode 8 of a ten-season run, we finally learn a little bit more about the holograms - mainly, that they're based off of his DNA, but thanks to random file deletions, each hologram represents a different aspect of his fractured psyche. The science isn't sound, especially the more you look at it, but it's not like the 'Star Trek' franchise is immune to weak science that props a gag up.
Unfortunately, up to this point, 'Star Trek: Picard' hasn't really been that kind of show. With the exception of the heist episode, humor has not been one of the show's strong suits - nor did it have to be. The show has been about a conspiracy that's slowly unraveling, tied in to humanitarian disasters and the ethical questions surrounding artificial intelligence. It is not a show that benefits much from an ordinarily standoffish character suddenly doing a bad Scottish accent.
It would have been right at home on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' - or indeed, most of the other classic 'Star Trek' series. Those shows placed greater emphasis on their crew members, and the crew's various quirks and stories. They took themselves seriously but also allowed enough room for camp, and humor. The multiple holograms are a gag, one that would have been right at home on older episodes of 'Star Trek,' but 'Star Trek: Picard' has been selling itself as a much more serious, darker kind of show...mostly.
The tonal whiplash is emblematic of the series' inability to form an identity. The show feels like it's trying to be too much all at ones, and not all of it fits. The show has been jamming a lot in while trying too hard to make it all work. While some of it does, ultimately, 'Star Trek: Picard' is still littered with far too many broken pieces.
The next episode of 'Star Trek: Picard' airs March 19, on CBS All-Access.