While last week’s episode “Absolute Candor”  featured the crew being hammered by a Romulan Bird of Prey, this week’s episode “Stardust City Rag” finds our crew playing pretend.

Apparently Freecloud is the space version of Las Vegas.  All flash and glitter.  When Picard discovers Bruce Maddox is being held for ransom, a plot is hatched to rescue him.  It involves Rios and Picard taking on new personas to visit the planet.

Rios becomes a flashy facer, which is apparently close to a flashy pimp.  He is decked out in feathered hat, gold chains and fur.  Quite a sight but not unpleasant by any means.  Seeing Cabrera dance his way into the club made the whole episode for me!

The plan involves using 7 of 9 as bait but I won’t get into the details and spoil it for anyone.  I will just say the plan goes awry.

I love Cabrera and will watch whatever he does.  That being said I have enjoyed his performance in Picard but I must say the series itself has some problems.  There is too much emphasis on the past going back and forth.  It makes for a somewhat muddled plot.  If you are not a hardcore Star Trek watcher much of it will be lost on you.

The show spends a lot of time finding ways to bring on old characters and not enough time on exploring the new characters.  It can’t decide if it wants to be nostalgic or something new altogether.

The least interesting part of the story is Soji herself.  Her story is cloaked in mystery, spies and total nonsensical Trek speak.  She is involved with Narek despite the fact that she is a synth and would experience no human emotions.  So love would be out of her capability.  I have to admit the whole love story doesn’t interest me at all.  The relationship between Narek and his sister is weird and creepy.  The purpose of everyone on the Borg cube is unknown.  This whole storyline is just too muddled for my taste.

I believe the series would benefit from a more forward going storyline.  Stop with the past, the going back and forth, talking endlessly about things we haven’t seen and don’t know about.  Give us a clear plot, some adventure getting there, some laughs along the way, a lot of excitement and most importantly character development.

Well looks like Cabrera probably won’t feature much in next week’s episode.  Looks a little Soji heavy.  Guess we will see.

Let us know your thoughts on the series in the comments.  Are you loving it?  Disappointed?  Let us know!

</div>