STAR TREK PICARD: Episode 301 and 302: “The Next Generation” and “Disengage”

The first two episodes of STAR TREK: PICARD: Season Three on Paramount+ provide rousing, exciting science fiction thrills where Admiral Picard gets a secret distress message from Dr. Beverly Crusher, the Starship Enterprise’s former medical officer, and must come to his friend’s rescue, with the help of Commander Riker. These first two episodes offer a promising, uplifting, exhilarating start to the final season of PICARD, but they have some foul language, strong action violence and a brief reference to another female character’s “girlfriend,” so MOVEIGUIDE® doesn’t know yet whether the rest of the Season 3 episodes will have the annoying politically correct, woke content that Season Two had.

The movie opens with Dr. Crusher little spaceship being invaded by some nasty aliens. She fights them off, but there’s another person with her on the ship, a person that she’s keeping imprisoned for some unknown reason. After Beverly dispatches the aliens, she sends a secret subspace message to her former Captain, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.

Cut to Picard preparing to travel with his housekeeper and friend, a Romulan woman, who’s accepted a research position on another planet. The trip is interrupted when Picard gets Beverly’s distress message.

Picard’s former First Officer, Commander Will Riker, helps Picard get a spaceship to travel to Beverly’s location, which is in a nebula just outside Federation space. They invent a fake inspection of the ship, which is commanded by Capt. Liam Shaw, a grumpy, suspicious man. Happily, Seven of Nine happens to be Shaw’s First Officer. So, when Shaw refuses to drop Picard and Riker off near the nebula, Seven of Nine disobeys orders and takes them there.

However, when they get there, they run into the large spaceship that’s trying to gain access to Beverly’s ship. The spaceship is commanded by a female bounty hunter named Vadic. The other person on Beverly’s ship happens to be her son, John, who’s also a doctor and is wanted for stealing medicine and stirring up trouble, such as helping a group of oppressed people. John wants to give himself up to protect his mother, but she’ll have none of that. The problem is, Vadic’s ship has Shaw’s ship outgunned, by a lot.

Meanwhile, Picard and Seven of Nine’s friend, a Federation undercover agent named Raffi, is tracking down some unknown people who have stolen some powerful new weapons from the Federation. She almost has them in her sights when they use the weapons to totally destroy a large Federation recruitment center. Raffi’s mysterious handler tells her to stop investigating a criminal alien who may lead her to the terrorist group. She disobeys the order to stand down and gets into serious trouble.

The second episode, Number 302, ends with two exciting twists.

The first two episodes of Season Three of PICARD, “The Next Generation” and “Disengage,” are thrilling and uplifting. They make a promising start to the third and final season of STAR TREK: PICARD on Paramount+. For example, the episodes involve saving a friend’s life and a mother and father interacting with their adult son, who’s in trouble.

Both episodes have some foul language and strong action violence. Also, the first episode has a line of dialogue where a female character says she broke up with her “girlfriend.” So, MOVIEGUIDE® doesn’t know yet whether the rest of the Season 3 episodes will have the annoying politically correct, woke content that Season Two had. So, we advise some caution.