'Star Trek: Picard' Episode 2 Review : Maps and Legends is dense, exposition-heavy episode that sets up a mystery
Spoiler Alert for 'Maps and Legends' - Season 1, Episode 2 of 'Star Trek: Picard'
Make no mistake: this is an exposition heavy episode, presented with all the seriousness of a professor letting you know that there WILL be a test. It does its best to spice things up, but it's still very much the homework episode, dense with information and requiring a little extra homework on the part of the viewer besides. Pulling in from CBS' "Short Treks," the 'Star Trek: Picard - Countdown' prequel comic, and even Easter Eggs from canon-adjacent prequel novels, it's an episode that requires some work to keep up with.
One of the early scenes shows that the episode is very much aware of how much of an information dump it is. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Laris (Orla Brady) invesitage Dahj's (Isa Briones) apartment in a scene that is interspersed with Laris and Zhaban (Jamie McShane) explaining to Picard an ancient Romulan sect. The sect is never written down, unfortunately, but mentioned enough times to hazard a guess - the Jhad vash - a secret cabal all but brainwashed into hating all synthetic lifeforms for reasons as yet unknown. The strangeness of having those two scenes flick back and forth makes sense as you realize that the show is trying to find a way to not make the lore dump somehow not be boring.
It works, to an extent, though that's more dependant on the performances than anything else. There is a charm to the performances of Patrick Steward, Orla Brady and Jamie McShane that is absent on the Artifact - the former Borg Cube that Romulans are studying and exploiting for its technology. The scenes on the Artifact are all a little lifeless, truth be told, with Isa Briones' bringing the only real life to the screen as Doctor Soji.
'Maps and Legends' seems to be setting up a larger mystery, with a lot of moving parts, and this episode establishes a lot of information that will doubtless be unravelled as the season continues. Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita) appears to be a major player, as does Lieutenant Narissa Rizzo (Peyton List) - but it's still unclear as to WHY. The final moments seem to tease a return to the fun that 'Star Trek: Picard' promised in its trailers, though. New character Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), from the prequel comics, livens up the screen in a big way, and seeing more of her character is a big reason to look forward to episode 3.
Exposition is a necessary part of any science fiction story, and once of science fiction's biggest challenges is in finding a way to present it all without losing the interest of the viewer. This episode doesn't quite manage that, but hopefully, cramming this much information into one episode leaves the rest of the season a little more freedom to breathe, as Admiral Picard is going to have to begin operating outside the bounds of Starfleet in order to find Data's second daughter.
The next episode of 'Star Trek: Picard' airs February 6, on CBS All-Access.