Welcome to a special series of Trekking Through Compliance, the podcast series inspired by my review of Star Trek, the Original Series. In this special series I am joined by another uber Star Trek maven, Megan Dougherty, co-founder of One Stone Creative. In this series we will review the new television show Picardwhich is currently streaming on CBS. Today, Episode 8, Broken Pieces.
SPOILER ALERT-Although we will review each episode after it appears, we will discuss each episode in depth.
Episode 8, Broken Pieces. A flashback shows Narissa’s initiation into the Zhat Vash on a planet with eight suns: she experiences the Admonition, a warning of the danger of synthetic life left behind by a long-extinct race. Most are driven mad by the knowledge, but Narissa retains her sanity.
Meeting Soji stirs up painful memories in Rios: he eventually tells Raffi that Soji resembles one of two beings whom Rios’s former commanding offer, Captain Vandermeer, was ordered to execute by Starfleet Security; Vandermeer committed suicide and Rios was forced to cover up the event. Raffi realizes that the two were synthetics from Bruce Maddox’s planet. Jurati awakens and admits that she murdered Maddox, explaining the vision Oh gave her; she promises never to harm Soji. Raffi explains her deduction that the Zhat Vash were behind the synth attack on Mars. Soji plots a course for her home planet; La Sirena is followed by Narek’s ship. On the Artifact, Seven arrives to rescue Elnor; she interfaces with the Queen’s cell to use the Borg drones aboard the cube to try to retake control, but Narissa has most of the drones jettisoned into space and sends a fleet to Soji’s planet.
Highlights, speculations and questions include:

1. Since the Borg collective is limited to this Cube, could a new Borg culture be created from the Ex-B’s?
2. Is there a potential Borg-synth alliance brewing? What will it mean for humanity?
3. How was 7/9 able to connect and more importantly disconnect from the collective?
4. What work does Annika have left?
5. How cool was Raffi’s interview of the five holographic helpers?
6. Was Oh behind Rios’ being busted out of Star Fleet?
7. Would you forgive Jurati so easily for murder? Was it temporary insanity?
8. Is Star Fleet dispatching the fleet to DS 12 for the right reasons?
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