Star Trek Picard Season 3 Episode 7 - Dominion - Review / Reaction

Crippled, cornered, and out of options, Picard stages a gambit to trap Vadic and reveal her true motive – a gamble that puts the Titan in the crosshairs and forces Picard and Beverly to question every moral code they've ever held.

Star Trek Picard Season 3, Episode 7 just got released on Paramount Plus. The episode is titled "Dominion." Yes there are spoilers. Picard Season 3 has received widespread acclaim which is often credited to the new showrunner Terry Matalas but is it deserved? Seasons 1 and 2 were considered a terrible mess. This season will reunite the entire TNG main cast (other than Wesley) but not all at once. This week we see the return of Geordi La Forge and the introduction of his other (and real life) daughter. This episode reveales another super secret camero from a 90's Trek character... I spoil it in the review and later in the description...

I know this is long but if you watch at 2X speed it's more manageable. ;-)

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Memory Alpha Teaser -

The USS Titan-A hides with minimum power in the Chin'toka scrapyard, amidst the wreckage of the battles fought there, while Seven of Nine reaches out to her old friend Captain Tuvok for information on Riker's whereabouts. Tuvok replies that Riker was not reported in Starfleet custody. Seven glances over at Captain Shaw and T'Veen, who are analyzing Tuvok's voice; T'Veen nods, indicating it matched. Picard silently encourages her to proceed. Seven then asks about the last time Tuvok had seen Admiral Janeway. Tuvok admits it has been some time, but expects she is preparing for Frontier Day, which is in 36 hours, and the entire fleet is being assembled in the Sol system for the celebration. Seven explains the belief that everything they've found points to a larger conspiracy, and asks if Tuvok could connect them to someone they could trust. Tuvok seems apologetic when he replies it will be difficult, given their status as fugitives. T'Veen and Shaw monitor the response, but the analysis comes back "inconclusive." Seven acknowledges the complexities of the issue were like "a house of cards," like the games of kal-toh they used to play. Tuvok concedes that she had beaten him "countless" times, which further seems to reinforce she is dealing with the real Tuvok. He agrees to meet with her to find new allies. Seven suggests meeting on Aklion VII, where she had had her neural pattern stabilized and Tuvok immediately agrees... which proves to Seven that he is actually a Changeling. No Vulcan would go to Aklion VII after the anti-Kolinahr demonstrations there, and her neural pattern had been stabilized on the USS Voyager by the real Tuvok.

Exposed, the Changeling smirks; Geordi La Forge then warns that the comm signal is being traced. Seven demands to know what they've done to the real Tuvok, as only he would have known about their kal-toh games. The Tuvok Changeling responds only that all of the Titan crew will think death is a relief when the Changelings are finished with them. Picard then steps forward, demanding to know where Riker is. The Changeling's face changes to that of Riker, who mocks Picard by saying that he was "as good as dead," like Picard himself. Picard finally tells Geordi to cut the communication. Geordi warns that they can not keep doing this, and perhaps it was time they just accepted their situation. Picard looks around at the others. "We're on our own," he agrees grimly.

In the conference room, Picard asks about Worf, and Geordi reports that he and Musiker had been observing Starfleet Security at Exo-Port, and confirmed that there was no report of Riker in custody; they are on their way back. "And not a moment too soon," he adds, as short of hiding in junkyards like Chin'toka, he's running out of places to hide them. Picard adds they are also running out of time; Frontier Day is coming, and they still have to expose the conspiracy to Starfleet somehow. Beverly Crusher then speaks up, having been weighing a moral dilemma of sorts. Whether the new Changelings' physiology is evolved or engineered, it makes them unique, and the best way to expose them is that uniqueness - a weapon, or at the very least a tool, to help expose them. Her dilemma, however, is that it might require a biological solution, and targeting a species based on their biology is tantamount to genocide, thinking on the morphogenic virus used during the Dominion War; she knows they are desperate, but is concerned about crossing a line. Picard asks her to look into what she can find, and they would weigh the moral implications if and when it became a necessity.
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