The time has finally come for Picard to face his past. That being his Borg past, Episode six “The Impossible Box” brings the crew to the artifact Borg cube. I was so happy I had the chance to be the one to review this episode.
Plot
Picard and the makeshift crew of the La Sirena crew deal with the death of Maddox. Little does anyone know that Jurati was the one to actually kill him. They are on their way to the Borg cube known as the Artifact. On the cube Soji is experiencing this recurring dream, the dream is a younger Soji walking through her home on a rainy night. She enters her father’s workspace to constantly run away. Narek believes this is the key to finding the location of the synthetics. He uses Soji and discovers through an ancient Romulan meditation room the supposed location. During this time his sister is constantly watching what’s going on.
At this point in the story, I was ready for this to happen. The running around really started to get old between the two. Now during these Picard safely makes it to the cube using some forged diplomatic documents. As he is forced to enter the cube alone, Picard begins to have flashbacks of his past time in the collective. Hough and a few other former Borg arrive in time to snap him out of it before he falls. Bringing back a character like Hough and not the entire former cast shows that the people writing this show really want to make a show with the quality or over some horrible reboot.Â
As you can guess, Picard finds Soji while she is escaping a deadly gas from a Romulan Impossible Box that was intended to kill her. This forces Hugh to help them both. On the La Sirena, panic has begun to set in as the Romulans begin to hunt down both Soji and Picard. Elnor leaves the safety of the ship to protect the group. In doing so he kills a few Romulan guards and allows the two to use a special transporter designed for the Borg Queen. The episode is the strongest so far with more action then the previous episodes had. The story is finally moving faster than a snail.
Performance
At this point, the cast is still doing a great job. Even with most of the season over the characters are really growing. With Narek finally showing his true Romulan colors the actor Harry Treadaway actually had to show off some emotions as he betrayed Soji. Michelle Hurd is constantly upstaging the rest of the cast, her portrayal of Raffi is heartbreaking. Hopefully, the writers will allow this character some kind of happiness.
Cinematography
The Borg cube was what this episode revolved around. Seeing the cube from the perspective of Picard makes the episode better. For most of the season, we have been stuck seeing it from the view of the Romulans, this cube is full of struggling individuals trying to regain their freedom. Along with Star Trek: Discovery, this show is one of the best looking Star Trek shows to ever be produced. The one thing I’m happy about is that for most of the season we have had a healthy dose of different places to visually enjoy. It’s great that the story is starting to leave the Borg use behind.Â
Verdict
The story of both groups has finally come together in The Impossible Box. I still feel like we could have achieved this maybe two episodes ago. This first season hasn’t been a disappointment. Especially since we don’t have any filler episodes in the middle of the season as we did with The Mandalorian. Jason has the next episode, this one deals with the aftermath of Picard’s escape off the cube. I’m looking forward to his review.
