STAR TREK: PICARD: Episode 309 “Võx”

Episode 309 of STAR TREK: PICARD, the penultimate episode of the whole series, finds Picard and his old crew on pins and needles when they discover that the evil shape shifters are working with the Borg Collective, Picard’s ultimate nemesis, who have taken over his son’s mind and plan to assimilate the entire fleet of the Federation on Frontier Day, right above Earth. Streaming on Paramount+, Episode 309 of STAR TREK: PICARD is a brilliantly written, exciting episode and presents an anti-communist allegory that warns viewers about the Marxist collectivism that’s infected so many of the world’s young people, but the episode has some scary violence and brief foul language.

As the episode opens, Counselor Deanna Troi and Admiral Jean-Luc Picard’s son, Jack, prepare to open the red door in Jack’s mind. They find there’s a Borg Cube behind the red door of Jack’s mind. Data and Geordi investigate and discover that the reason the shap shifters were after Jack and stole an anatomical sample from Picard’s remains at the Daystrom Institute was because the Borg rewrote Jean-Luc’s genetic code with Borg information when the Borg captured him 35 years ago. So, he’s passed this code onto Jack, and Jack now carries, in his own DNA, the key to bringing the Borg back. Determined to get to the heart of who and what he is, Jack steals a shuttle to confront the Borg Queen personally.

The Borg now plans to use Jack’s DNA to infect all of Star Fleet on Frontier Day, when all its starships and crew members will be gathered in one place. In fact, Star Fleet has chosen that day to install a new technology that will connect all of its starships, to help them operate totally together as one. This will enable the Borg to accomplish their goal of assimilating its greatest enemy, the Federation, once and for all. There’s a kicker, however. The assimilation only affects Star Fleet crew members 25 and younger, before their brains have been fully developed.

How can the old crew of “The Next Generation” stop the Borg and reverse this disaster?

Episode 309 of STAR TREK: PICARD is a brilliantly written, exciting episode. It has a riveting story and high production values. The fact that Picard’s crew are back in action and facing their greatest enemy, the Borg Collective, makes for a spectacular viewing experience that’s highly entertaining. The performances from the veteran cast of THE NEXT GENERATION remains strong. The additional performance of Ed Speleers, who plays Picard’s son, is gripping. The script ratchets up the tension to the nth degree in preparation for the next episode, Number 310, the final episode of STAR TREK: PICARD. To top everything off, the ending of the episode has a nostalgic twist that’s sure to jerk a tear from and inspire a jump for joy in many fans of START TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. Episode 309 is everything a penultimate piece of a story should be.

Unlike Season 2 of STAR TREK: PICARD, Episode 309 is the opposite of woke. It has a strong moral worldview that’s anti-communist. For example, the Borg Collective represent the tyranny of a collective over the individual. In Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ political pamphlet, THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO, the collective is the be-all and end-all of socio-political structure, and individual rights and individual liberty are totally abolished, in favor of an all-powerful collective. Marxism is also like the Borg in that the Marxist collective assimilates the minds of everyone to slavishly serve the interests of theta collective. It’s also enlightening that, in the episode, the assimilation technology of the Borg villains can only assimilate the minds of people 25 and under, before their brains are fully developed. This wonderful anti-communist allegory seems explicitly designed to warn viewers about the Marxist collectivism in America’s education system and its mass media that’s infected so many of today’s young people.

Also, since the Borg are more machine than human, they’ve lost all their humanity as well as all their connection to the Divine. After all, one of the main goals of a Marxist collective is to eliminate all religion, especially Marx’s greatest enemy, Biblical Christianity.

This political allegory in Episode 309 of STAR TREK: PICARD is reminiscent of the anti-communist themes of some 1950s science fiction movies like THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

In addition, the determination of Picard’s old crew to stand with him in possibly Star Fleet’s darkest hour, is a demonstration of John 15:13, that greater love has no one than that someone lay down his life for his friends. Also, as Commander Riker says to Admiral Picard near the end, “We’re the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, but, more than that, we’re your family. . . . Jean-Luc, wherever you go, we go.” The episode’s eternal themes of friendship, family, service, self-sacrificial love, and courage make Episode 309 a truly powerful penultimate entry in Season 3 of STAR TREK: PICARD. The episode does contain scary violence, five obscenities and one strong profanity, however. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.