STAR TREK: PICARD: Episode 303 and 304: “Seventeen Seconds” and “No Win Scenario”

Episodes 303 and 304 of STAR TREK: PICARD continue to drive the gripping narrative of the series’ third and final season forward.

Episode 303 finds Picard and the crew aboard the Titan seeking to escape the warship, Shrike, captained by the “bounty hunter” named Vadic. They enter what seems to be a nebula, where revelations abound regarding the son Picard never knew he had and regarding the real reason the Shrike has been able to easily track and target them.

Meanwhile, Worf and Raffi follow a man who may be involved in the terrorist plot to destroy a Starfleet recruitment center, but the man turns out to be not at all what he seems. Eventually, the Shrike fires a portal device which reroutes the Titan, making it a pointblank target for Vadic’s warship. Riker and Picard, with the help of Seven of Nine and Picard’s son, Jack, search for a saboteur aboard the Titan. The episode ends with a disaster that leaves the Titan making a free fall to the middle of the nebula, toward what appears to be a ship-destroying gravity well.

In the thrilling Episode 304, the crew deals with their impending doom in different ways while Seven of Nine continues to search for the saboteur. Vadic reveals she’s a host for one of the aliens behind the Shrike’s attack on the Titan and the attack on the Starfleet recruitment center in the first two episodes of Season Three.

With these two episodes, the third season of STAR TREK: PICARD continues to provide exciting, riveting entertainment. They also highlight Picard’s teaching that “as long as you stay steadfast, one to another, you are never without hope.”

Production values in Episodes 303 and 304 are very high, with good performances on all sides. The tension is palpable as Picard, Riker, Seven of Nine, Jack, Beverly, and other members of the Titan crew fight for their lives against a mysterious warship which has them outgunned and befuddled with its disarming new portal weapon. The development of Worf and Raffi’s mission makes an engaging addition to the main story. Episode 303 opens and closes well, leading to an agonizing, harrowing situation for Picard, his friends, his son, and the crew on the Titan. After watching Episode 303, most viewers will be anxious to see Episode 304, which brings the first four episodes of Season Three to a satisfying, uplifting close with lots of intense jeopardy. The two episodes also begin to reveal who’s behind the attempt to capture Picard’s son and the attack on the Starfleet recruitment center. They also reveal why Picard’s son chose not to seek a relationship with his father when he came of age.

The main worldview in these two episodes remains strongly moral overall. It honors hope, trust, courage, service, and family. Also, the broken relationship between Picard and his son looks like it’s on the road to recovery by the end. A final scene creates an interesting new cliffhanger mystery to explore in the next episode.

However, the two episodes do have three problems. First, both episodes contain some strong foul language. Second, while trying to get a bad guy to talk, Wolf gives him a piece of moral relativism, saying, “There is no righteous fight; no good, no evil.” It’s hard to say whether Worf really believes such humanist nonsense or is simply trying to get a recalcitrant enemy to surrender his hatred of Starfleet. Finally, in another scene, Commander Riker, who’s become disillusioned because of his own son’s untimely death several years ago, tells Picard that, in all his travels, nothing has convinced him there’s anything after death. However, despite the inconsistency with the program’s other positive themes and messages, Episodes 303 and 304 are thankfully free of any woke or politically correct leftist lies, unlike Season Two of PICARD. The foul language in these two episodes does warrant extreme caution, however. See the CONTENT section for more information.

The worldview, as so often in Star Trek, is a mix of paganism with strong biblical morality which demonstrates that, due to God’s common grace, no one can ever be completely consistent in their pagan worldview. Thankfully, these episodes are notably free of woke elements.