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Recap / Star Trek: The Next Generation S3E4 "Who Watches the Watchers"

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Original air date: October 16, 1989

The Federation has set up a secret observation station on a primitive Vulcan-like planet named Mintaka III to observe the inhabitants without their knowledge. The Enterprise is delivering supplies when its reactor breaks down, and it becomes briefly visible to the outside world. Two of the Mintakans see it within that window of time, and one of them, Liko ( Ray Wise ), is injured while trying to investigate. Doctor Crusher decides to beam him up to the Enterprise to tend to his injuries. Picard is unhappy with her decision, but allows it on the condition that she erase his memories afterwards, as Doctor Pulaski did to Sargenka in " Pen Pals ." Crusher warns him that the operation might not be successful, but agrees.

Liko awakens and sees Picard standing over him in Sickbay, being treated like a boss by everyone around him, and comes to the conclusion that Picard is some kind of god that raised him from the dead. Unaware that Crusher's memory wipe didn’t take, they send him back to where they found him and assume that the problem's solved. But they still have another problem: One of the workers from the station, Palmer, is missing, and the sensors can't pick him up. To find him, Riker and Troi beam down disguised as Mintakans.

The first thing they see is Liko recounting his tale of the mighty Picard to his friends and neighbors. The others are skeptical, especially a woman known as Nuria, but when the villagers find the unconscious Palmer, who is clearly not of their world, even she is convinced. Riker warns Picard that their interference is quickly becoming a new religion, and Picard tells them to get Palmer out of there immediately. Troi creates a distraction while Riker grabs Palmer and beams away, but the Mintakans see him before he escapes and capture Troi as his accomplice. Liko immediately says Troi should be punished to appease the Picard. Nuria says they have no reason to hurt anyone just yet, but they might if they can’t find Palmer.

The leader of the research station tells Picard that, with the damage to the Prime Directive already done, the only way to minimize the chaos is to appear before the Mintakans as a god and give them guidelines for their new religion to follow. Picard refuses to push the Mintakans back into a belief in superstition and the supernatural. Instead, he selects Nuria as a voice of reason and beams her onto the ship to show her that he is simply a man with advanced technology rather than a god. Nuria comes to understand Picard's message but is still in awe over his technological powers. She begs him to raise several of her recently deceased villagers from the dead. Picard allows her to watch a patient die in Sickbay to show her that he and his kind are just as mortal as she is.

Nuria and Picard return to the village just in time to prevent Liko from killing Troi as a sacrifice. Liko requires some more convincing, however, and attempts to prove that Picard is immortal by aiming a bow at him. Though the others try to stop Liko, Picard prepares to sacrifice his life to convince the Mintakans of his mortality. Liko's daughter throws off his aim, and he hits Picard in the shoulder. The sight of red blood convinces Liko, and of course thanks to Dr. Crusher, the injury is merely an annoyance to Picard.

Tropes in this episode include:

• A God I Am Not : Something Picard is forced to go to extreme lengths to make the Mintakans understand.
• Artistic License – History : The Mintakans are apparently a Bronze Age society, and their most advanced piece of technology is the bow. It's considerably more advanced than anything else they have, as the bows shown are clearly late 20th Century sporting bows, made of composite plastics rather than wood.
• Broken-System Dogmatist : Liko. Subverted in that this belief system was broken before it even hit the ground: Liko is injured when he is electrocuted by an electrified wall at the outpost and seriously injured and knocked unconscious by falling off a ledge. When Dr. Crusher, by instinct, brings him aboard the Enterprise to save his life, Picard does not take well to this. While being treated in sickbay, Liko awakens in a daze, automatically assuming from the shapely lighting and sleek aesthetic that he has been taken to the afterlife, and seeing Picard as a pristine god. Crusher attempts to erase his memory, unsuccesfully, and roots of a new religious movement begin to sprout in the village. Later, When Liko becomes fanatical during a strong freak thunderstorm on the surface note  interpreting the storm as a sign of anger from "The Picard", for not keeping one of the Federation outpost scientists captive , he is unconvinced about Picard's lack of godly power when he beams down, instead genuflecting before him and claiming that he can bring back the dead. Liko then shoots Picard with an arrow to prove his godhood, but Oji pushes him before he can aim properly, hitting his shoulder instead. It's not until Nuria shows him Picard's blood on her fingers that he snaps out of it. Nuria: Picard speaks the truth. I have visited his people. I have seen how they live and how they die. When death takes one of their loved ones, they are as helpless as we are! Liko: Then,... how was I brought back to life?! Nuria: Liko, you were not dead. Picard's people have a knowledge that we lack. They're able to heal wounds that we cannot. Liko: NO! No... He can bring back the dead! Show them, Picard! You can bring back... ...my wife to me. Picard: I cannot. Liko: Why? Why won't you do this for me? Have I failed you in some way? Are you angry with me? Picard: I'm not angry with you. Liko: Well, then I beg you! Bring her back to me! [kneels in front of Picard] I will... give you my life in exchange! Please! Take back what you gave me! Give it to her! Let her live! Picard: [exasperated] It is beyond my power! Liko: Nothing is beyond your power! You are the Overseer! I will prove it! [goes to prepare his bow and arrow]
• Clarke's Third Law : Invoked by Picard to explain to the Mintakans why he would appear god-like to them. To a Mintakan caveperson, Nuria's ability to hunt from a distance with a bow would be strange and frightening.
• Continuity Nod : When Picard asks that Crusher wipe Liko's memory, Crusher notes that she understands Dr. Pulaski's methods, which we last saw in " Pen Pals ." This is one of the very few moments where Pulaski's existence is acknowledged after Season 2.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance : Troi explains that in Mintakan society, "men walk behind their wives," who will negotiate with other women to use their "services." In their society itself, though, the men don't seem have any less power than women, so Mintaka III isn't quite a Lady Land .
• Forgotten Phlebotinum : The implanted "subcutaneous communicators" make another appearance in this episode, before being forgotten again in later episodes.
• Foreshadowing : It comes up in Picard's and Crusher's conversation in Sick Bay early on that she's not entirely sure the mind-wipe will work with the Mintakans brain chemistry. Turns out she had every right to worry.
• Hand Wave : The Mintakans' body chemistry makes it impossible to erase their memories, allowing the rest of the episode to happen.
• Literary Allusion Title : Translated from " Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? " It's a quote from Roman poet Juvenal 's Satires .
• The Main Characters Do Everything : Riker and Troi are altered to pass for Mintakans so they can handle the away mission rather than, say, some Vulcans who could pass for Mintakans without surgery. Presumably the job was too important to assign to some Red Shirt .
• Mistaken for Superpowered : An injured man from a primitive alien race is beamed onto the Enterprise for treatment, with the plan being to wipe his memory of being on the ship after he has been treated. To the chagrin of the crew they discover after returning the man to his planet that the mind wipe didn't take, and the man, who saw Captain Picard giving orders to others during his time aboard the ship, has become convinced that Picard is a god who raised him from the dead, and begins preaching about Picard after being returned to his planet.
• Only Sane Man : Nuria is identified as the most rational and influential Mintakan, so she is chosen to receive Picard's pitch. She beams back to try to talk the others down from their superstitious fervor.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions : Picard states that belief in superstition and the supernatural were achievements that both the Federation and the Mintakans made centuries ago. He takes it very poorly that the Mintakans are building a false religion out of belief in him. Indeed, very quickly they start suggesting blood sacrifices to be made to appease him. Previous episodes suggest that Picard has no problem with people having personal, philosophical beliefs about the unknowable, such as the afterlife; it's heavily implied that Picard's issue is that the Mintakans are worshiping him , specifically.
• Planetville : The episode treats this one Mintakan village as if it represented the entire planetary population of their species. Hence the concern that cultural contamination of what is actually a very small group of people could alter the development of their entire civilization.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! : Beverly beams Liko to Sickbay after he's shocked by the malfunctioning duck blind and angrily rebuffs Picard's assertion that she should have let him die to prevent cultural contamination.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Mintakans refer to Picard as "The Picard."
• Stop Worshipping Me : With little alternative to clean up the awful mess they've made, Picard goes through a lengthy sequence of this with Nuria.
• Unwanted False Faith : Picard to the primitive species on the planet below. The only way he can convince them he is not a god is by proving that he can't raise the dead and by taking an arrow to the shoulder.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S3E3 "The Survivors"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S3E5 "The Bonding"

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Den of Geek

Revisiting Star Trek TNG: Who Watches The Watchers?

Is Jean Luc Picard a God? The Mintakans think so in this week's Star Trek: TNG look-back...

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This review contains spoilers.

3.4 Who Watches The Watchers?

Out in the deepest reaches of space, a group of Starfleet scientists is studying Mintakans, a proto-Vulcan species that has recently reached the Bronze Age. (In Star Trek lore, this means the next three ages are Roman Age, Gangster Age and Ruled By A Computer.) When a power cut threatens to cut off their holographic disguise, the scientists make a video call to the Enterprise just in time for the crew to watch all the scientists’ stuff explode in their faces. Uh oh! Picard shifts the Enterprise up a gear, but things look grim.

When the Enterprise arrives, things look even grimmer. Some of the scientists are dead, others are injured, one is missing. But worse still, the holographic disguise is down! If any of the natives manage to see the lab, the prime directive would be violated in the most heinous way! Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, right?

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Of course, it does. Not only that, one of the Mintakans – Liko – manages to electrocute himself too, because their society doesn’t have any concept of live wires. Crusher, in true doctorly fashion, begins to treat him and beams him to the Enterprise. Unfortunately his daughter sees the whole thing. I’m sure that won’t be too damaging, right?

After Doctor Crusher successfully out-logics Picard (“The damage was already done! I just ground the fragments into a fine dust!”) they agree to try wiping his memory, Pulaski-style, before returning him to the planet. But it didn’t work! That Pulaski has ruined things for the last time! Liko now has memories of Picard, and when he wakes up he dutifully sets about re-ordering society around the idea of a Picard-based afterlife.

Rather than face explaining to his superior officers that an entire society now worships him (and also because there’s a scientist still missing) Picard sends Troi and Riker to the planet disguised as Mintakans. They also have magic communicators that only they can hear. After the pair make a big splash at the town meeting (subtle!) the town’s leader, Nuria, argues with them about the concept of a Picard. Is he benevolent or petty? Why do bad things happen to good Mintakans? And is he a literal Picard or just the fictional central captain in a collection of morality tales?

Before we can discover this, another Mintakan drags the missing scientist into town. Having whipped themselves into a state of ritualistic bloodlust, the Mintakans decide to sacrifice the scientist. Riker and Troi attempt to intervene, but mostly just succeed in blowing their cover.

Tired of the incompetence of those around him, Picard beams Nuria onto the ship and attempts to level the situation with her. She’s about as confused as you’d expect a woman from the bronze age would be if she found herself on a space ship, but eventually Picard convinces her that he’s not a God, he just a regular dude with some really over-developed tools. She sort of understands, but then betrays her lack of understanding by asking if Picard would bring some Mintakans back to life for her.

Having run out of options, Picard brings Nuria to sickbay and makes her watch one of the scientists succumb to their injuries. She realises he’s not a God, just a very advanced alien. Back on the planet the mob has turned on Troi when Nuria and Picard beam to the surface to intervene. Liko is so adamant in his beliefs that Picard has to invite Liko to shoot him with a bow and arrow to prove that he’s mortal. Liko dutifully does just this and Picard is seriously injured.

Now everyone can see that Picard isn’t immortal, and they all go home disappointed and wait for the day that their world becomes capable of space flight instead. Could take weeks. Months, even. It’s safe to say that the Prime Directive has not been particularly upheld, but at least they did their best in limiting the damage. Another victory for the Enterprise.

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TNG WTF: For the first time ever, there’s no real WTF here.  Although the fact that these guys are “proto-Vulcan” is a little odd. Like, do they share a common ancestor with Vulcans (yeah, yeah, The Chase , I know) or is “Vulcan” just one of the few evolutionary paths a species can eventually go down? They even have proto-Vulcan haircuts!

TNG LOL: Maybe I just have a dark sense of humour, but I always find the initial video call hilarious. Partly it’s the way the guy slumps over the console in front of him just before the call fades away, and partly the awkward silence that follows. Like everyone’s thinking “Well, there go my plans for the weekend…”

Time Until Meeting: 13:01. No nonsense. Let’s figure this mess out!

Captain’s Log: Okay, see, THIS is what Star Trek should be about. Science, philosophy and morality all wrapped up in a single story. About the risks of going boldly into the universe, and the responsibility you have in doing so. If you wanted to give someone a single episode that encompassed Star Trek ‘s entire ethos, you could do much worse than this one.

The plot is pretty compelling, as the crew work to find a solution that doesn’t do even more damage, and Picard gets almost offended that he might have accidentally led them back into a dark age of superstition.  Troi and Riker’s infiltration of the Mintakans gives us a good look at a developing society, and the Mintakans are all pretty well-developed as individuals. The scenes where Nuria is on the Enterprise are particularly poignant.

Obviously you wouldn’t want every episode to be as morally didactic as this one, and it’s a shame it comes just two episodes after a similar one about aliens interfering with a primitive culture. But this is good stuff any way you look at it.

Watch or Skip? WATCH. That’s an order.

Read James’ look back at the previous episode, The Survivors, here .

Follow our  Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here . And be our  Facebook chum here .

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Who Watches the Watchers

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Screen Rant

Picard's watcher identity confirmed: star trek tos connection explained.

Star Trek: Picard season 2's Watcher isn't Guinan but the shocking reveal directly ties into Gary Seven and the TOS episode "Assignment: Earth."

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 4 - "Watcher"

The identity of the Watcher in Star Trek: Picard season 2 is revealed and the doppelganger of Laris (Orla Brady) shockingly connects to the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Assignment: Earth." Many assumed that Guinan (Ito Aghayere) would be the Watcher Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is seeking in 2024 Los Angeles but she turned out to be a red herring. While the coordinates Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) stole from the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) did lead to Guinan and her 10 Forward bar in Los Angeles , the El-Aurian's role was to introduce Picard to the Watcher, who inexplicably looks identical to Laris.

When the reluctant Guinan brought Picard to the Watcher in Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 4, she explained "watcher" was another word for "supervisor," which set off alarm bells for longtime Trekkers who remember Star Trek: The Original Series . Indeed, when the Watcher found Picard in LA's MacArthur Park, she mind-controlled several people to lead Jean-Luc to her. The Watcher, who perfectly resembles Laris, then teleported Picard to an unknown destination in a rectangle-shaped transporter, which resembled the closet-shaped transporter technology utilized by Gary Seven (Robert Lansing) in the Star Trek: TOS episode, "Assignment: Earth." This must mean the Watcher is, like Gary Seven, one of the Supervisors who are charged with protecting humanity's future.

Related: Picard Finally Shows A Star Trek Transporter Mistake

In "Assignment: Earth," the Starship Enterprise time-traveled to 1968 and accidentally intercepted Gary Seven as he was beaming to Earth. Seven, who was accompanied by a black cat named Isis, explained that he was a 20th-century human who was raised on another planet (that was never named) and his job was to protect the human race in this  "critical time" in their history. Gary Seven was a Class-1 supervisor designated Supervisor 194. He arrived on Earth to investigate the disappearance of two of his colleagues. When Seven learned that they were killed in an automobile accident, Supervisor 194 took over their mission to prevent the launch of an orbital nuclear platform that could start World War III . Gary Seven also used a versatile device called a Servo and had advanced technology such as the Beta-5 Computer.

The Watcher is apparently a Supervisor from the same alien world that employed Gary Seven in 1968, and the Supervisors from "Assignment: Earth" are still operating in the early 21st century. The Watcher's mission on Earth is to protect someone, and it could be the same target from which Q causes a time divergence. In fact, Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 4 ends with Q at the Europa Mission in 2024, where he taunts an unidentified blonde woman (Penelope Mitchell) from afar before Q's powers expectedly fail him . It's possible the Watcher is meant to protect that blonde woman and that she's the same divergence in time Picard is looking for. But why the Watcher is a dead ringer for Laris and why she seems to despise Guinan isn't clear. Still, Picard was obviously destined to meet the Watcher, who has her own "Assignment: Earth."

In the Star Trek: TOS episode "Assignment: Earth," Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) beamed to Earth incognito and helped Gary Seven destroy the orbital nuclear platform. They also encountered Gary's human assistant, Roberta Lincoln (Teri Garr). Jean-Luc has already made several references to "Kirk's Enterprise" in Star Trek: Picard season 2 and this can't be a coincidence. Rather, Star Trek: Picard season 2 appears to directly tie into "Assignment: Earth," the TOS season 2 episode which was intended to be a backdoor pilot for a spinoff TV series about Gary Seven that was never produced. "Assignment: Earth" continued in Star Trek novels and comic books but Star Trek: Picard is the first time it's been woven back into official canon since Star Trek: The Original Series.  Whether or not Gary Seven is also still alive in Star Trek: Picard 's 2024 timeframe remains to be seen.

Next: Picard's Major Character Death Fixes A Season 1 Failure

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Who Watches the Watchers Stardate: 43173.5 Original Airdate: 16 Oct, 1989

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The Watchers

A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatur... Read all A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night. A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

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Watcher (episode)

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With time running out to save the future, Picard takes matters into his own hands and seeks out an old friend for help. Meanwhile, Rios ends up on the wrong side of the law and Jurati makes a deal with the Borg Queen.

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Production
• 3.2 Cast and characters
• 3.3 Continuity
• 4.1 Starring
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• 4.8.1 Boxing poster references
• 4.8.2 Console references
• 4.8.3 LAPD Police Vehicle references
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• 4.8.6 The Pallid Son references
• 4.9 External links

Summary [ ]

Picard attempts to make contact with the others

Aboard the crashed CSS La Sirena , Picard tries to contact Rios or Musiker . Meanwhile, Musiker and Seven investigate the aftermath of the ICE raid at Clinica Las Mariposas . Gabi walks in from another room and tells them the clinic is closed, but Seven explains they were looking for their friend. She tells her that Rios and Teresa were both arrested. Unable to make contact without relays, Picard suggests finding a place to build a fire and activates the ship's cloaking device . They enter the nearby house – Château Picard , which appears to have been abandoned for a century : when Picard had brought the ship "home", he had aimed for the forest outside La Barre , near his family's property. Picard explains that the Nazis used the house as a base of operations when they occupied France during World War II , and his ancestors had hid in the tunnels below the château before making their escape to England . It remained in the family, under various caretakers, but the Picards did not reside in it for generations. As he runs his fingers along an old end table, he recalls a childhood memory of seeking out his mother in the house.

A pattern of 15

After lighting a fire in a fireplace, Picard tells Jurati they need to find out what else she stole from the Borg Queen 's mind, but first, Jurati needs rest. The doctor replies, as she fiddles with an abacus nearby, that thinking was her rest, commenting on the relaxing nature of calculus . Picard remembers that his mother used to play Édith Piaf 's " Non, je ne regrette rien " to calm him down. Jurati looks around for a drink, finding a bottle of pinot noir among the ruins, asking if Picard had a corkscrew on him. Picard sees the label and comes to a realization: Jurati moved fifteen beads on the abacus, pulled the fifteenth volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica from the shelf, and the year on the bottle is 1915 . The number fifteen seems to factor into their mission somehow; they realize it could be a date, and Picard asks if the ship's chronometer showed the date exactly when they landed. Jurati recalls that it was on the twelfth of April , 2024 , which means something would occur on the fifteenth – three days before their future changes irrevocably.

Act One [ ]

A Metro Local bus.

Riding a bus in Los Angeles , Musiker and Seven listen as a middle-aged man with a mohawk plays a loud song on his boom box . When an annoyed Seven asks him to turn off the noise, the man (recalling a similar request thirty-eight years earlier ) quickly turns his boom box off, apologetically explaining he just liked the song. As the noise abates, Musiker expresses the thought that they should have waited in their alternate future and come up with a comprehensive plan before making the jump. Seven notes there had not been "a lot of runways". Seven can see Musiker is still distraught about Elnor , whom Musiker insists they would get back if they fixed the timeline, and reassures her that his death was not her fault.

far more apologetic than last time

Back on La Sirena , Picard is preparing to beam into Los Angeles himself; as they couldn't contact the others, he was going to find the "Watcher" before time ran out. The Borg Queen stares with a smug smile at Jurati all throughout their preparations. Jurati offers to go with him, but Picard tells her she was needed on the ship, to try and boost communications and ensure the transporters could get them back. As Jurati beams Picard out, the Queen mocks her as being treated like an "afterthought"… but not to her, who can see Jurati is more than she appears to be: " Smart, cunning, and remarkably more cruel than I could have predicted. " Jurati asks how she was "cruel", and the Queen replies that she had fixed her only to take what she needed, leaving her powerless but now awake to feel it. As Jurati leaves her to her "plotting, or whatever it is Borg Queens do," the Queen notes that Jurati had felt the same thing she had, which the Borg had so many words for: assimilation , cooperation… connection.

Outside a familiar place

Picard materializes right outside of 10 Forward Avenue , a place with which he was familiar. He enters the empty bar and finds a bottle of Saurian brandy in a milk crate; as he moves to open it, the barkeep – whom he recognizes as a younger Guinan – interrupts, telling him the bar is closed. She offers him some "advice": walk back out the door, and she won't have to have him on her or " Luna 's" conscience. Luna is revealed to be a pit bull , but Picard, familiar with the breed , is able to get the dog to sit and stay. He apologizes, thinking that 10 Forward was always open; Guinan says that if he was here to drink, he was late, but if he was here to loot, he was early – the bar was closing down. She notes he was older than her "usual" thieves, asking if he hasn't settled into retirement yet. Picard ruefully admits he's tried, but that afternoon naps and jigsaw puzzles were "not quite his speed". He tells her that he needs her help, which she refuses, saying she didn't "help". He persists that he had something important to tell her, and he knew how valuable listening could be… as an El-Aurian . Guinan pulls a shotgun from under the bar and points it right at Picard's head. " Who the hell are you, old man? " she demands of him.

Act Two [ ]

Outside Police HQ.

Musiker and Seven approach the Los Angeles Police Department looking for Rios; Musiker begins to get in the desk sergeant's face, but Seven pulls her back and says they will wait outside of her "personal space". Seven politely thanks the officer for her service as they walk away. As they sit down, a man turns to them and tells them that LAPD won't have ICE detainees in their system, and that they had to go to the ICE offices to find who they were looking for.

Inside the detention facility.

Meanwhile, Rios and Teresa are booked by ICE, and placed in holding cells . An ICE officer enters and holds out transfer papers to one of the other detainees , who simply stares back. When the ICE officer becomes confrontational, Rios steps in, commenting on how giving someone a uniform and a badge gave them power; he is shocked with a taser and left convulsing for a moment on the floor in response. As he regains enough balance to sit down, Rios wonders aloud why the past had to hurt so much, pounding his good hand on his knee in frustration. Teresa, in the next cell, tells him that if he dislocates his other hand, she would have to start charging, and asks why he didn't run away. Rios replies he did, but elected to run back. She admits she is trying to figure out the "brave-or-stupid conundrum", and Rios jokes that if she figures it out, to call his late mother. She asks who he is really, and he answers that he was just a " Good Samaritan " passing through.

Back at 10 Forward Avenue, Guinan remarks that she can count on one hand how many times she's been identified by her species while she's been on Earth, and asks where Picard is from. He answers that he is from France , but Guinan doesn't buy it; anyone who knows what an El-Aurian is would not be coming from "around here, planetarily speaking". She sees that Luna has taken to him, and comments on how she usually didn't like strangers; Picard replies that it was because she knew he was no threat. Guinan finally shrugs, telling him whether he stayed or left, she was closing the doors of the bar for good. Picard believes that his finding her at the moment she was about to leave meant that he was in the right place. He tells her he had three days to try and stop a critical event, and Guinan sarcastically wishes him luck with that. However, he regains her attention when he mentions a "Watcher". As she begins to deny it, a man walks in, asking if he was early. Kneeling down next to Luna, she tells the dog it was time to go with her "Uncle Dale ", and hands Dale a basket before they leave.

Once Dale and Luna are gone, Guinan explains the troubles of the planet, how Humanity was killing it, how "truth is whatever you want it to be", and how a few people with the resources to change it refuse to do so because they fear having less. She tearfully notes how they had only "one tiny ball" in the galaxy, and all they wanted to do is fight. She has given them long enough, and now she wants to leave Earth . Picard, recalling the conversation he had had with Guinan in that very bar nearly four hundred years later , tells her it was not too late. " The problem isn't time, " he says. " It's you. " Guinan stares at him in surprise for a moment, and then becomes physically ill, vomiting on the floor. Picard recognizes she is suffering from Af-Kelt , or "time sickness", a condition that affects El-Aurians when the timeline has been changed; he tells her that he was repeating what she would tell him long from now in the future. Guinan thinks leaving the planet will give her distance from it, but Picard reminds her that distance offered no protection from time. There was a wrong that Picard had to correct… something only Guinan could help him do.

Act Three [ ]

At LAPD Headquarters , Seven follows an irate Musiker into the parking lot. Musiker is hoping to find where Rios is being held so that they could get back to the work of repairing the timeline, and begins scoping the LAPD's police cruisers. Seven is incredulous, wondering how good an idea it was to break into a vehicle of an agency that investigated theft. Musiker's plan is to simply break into one and use its computer to find their information, which Seven thinks is no better. To her added annoyance, Musiker is carrying her phaser when they had agreed not to bring phasers with them; Musiker nonchalantly says she had no idea how it got there. Seven tells her that her brains seemed to be in her fists, meaning she was not thinking clearly. Musiker vaporizes the window of the cruiser to get inside, and uses her tricorder to turn the car on and access its computer. Seven heatedly asks how she could use the tricorder to do that, but not unlock it; Musiker admits she could have, but her way was more fun. She is able to access computer records, and is horrified to see so many matching Rios and Teresa's description in the system, before seeing that ICE had a processing center twenty-five miles northwest of Los Angeles. Musiker tries to contact La Sirena , at first getting no response, before Jurati speaks up. Musiker explains they were traveling to a place called Castaic to find Rios, and gives the coordinates. Jurati tries to beam them over, but power has failed again. She is also unable to contact Picard despite the comms boost. With no option, Seven is forced to drive the stolen police car through Los Angeles' streets, while Jurati tries to bring the transporters back online; even if she couldn't beam them directly to their destination, it would need to be on standby once they found Rios. The Queen gets Jurati's attention, and the doctor reluctantly tells them to stand by, as she had someone to assist them.

Meanwhile, at 10 Forward Avenue, Guinan summarizes what Picard has told her – that he is from the future, but time has been altered, and his future is "A-OK" while the one he was trying to prevent was "Hell on Earth". Yet for all that, she notes he hasn't even told her his name. Picard explains he was trying not to change her path, and insists that whatever she was watching over was vital to the future of Humanity. Guinan tells him she was no Watcher, and as for Humanity, she draws his attention to the homeless people, forced to rely on charity to get by. Picard insists Humankind can change with patience, but Guinan tells him that only people who looked like Picard, rather than being dark-skinned like her, had the luxury of having patience in this time. As she places a tub of donations on the table for the nearby charity , she tells Picard she had seen that Earth had more potential than she imagined, but the hatred there never ended. She says that in the 21st century , hatred took off its hoods and put on suits instead. Picard told her that change was coming, but it was "too damn slow" in her view, and the cost too high, and admits being forced to watch it hurt her. Picard believes that history's darkest moments were tipping points for change, but Guinan remains pessimistic, saying that it would not tip soon enough. He pleads with her to stay at least a few more days.

In the ICE detention center, Teresa tells Rios that she did not spend six years in medical school just to watch her neighbors die because they were too afraid to go to a hospital, and admits she opened her clinic because she was a "control freak". Rios tells her where he comes from, she would be a hero; when she asks where, he is silent, not willing to give away too much. She then asks if he knew what would happen to him. He replies he does not, and asks if she does; she admits she is not sure either. She confesses to having a healthy fear of authority, but Rios points out that it did not seem to be the case when people needed help. Teresa attributes that to selfishness, that she felt the need to be needed. Just then, the ICE officer who tased Rios enters, with discharge papers for Teresa. Rios thanks her for her help, and Teresa keeps an offer of further aid open if he needs it. The ICE officer then asks for Rios' identity. Motivated either by frustration or the thought the officer won't believe him, Rios throws caution to the wind and identifies himself as commanding officer of the USS Stargazer , and that he was here to stop a change in time. The ICE officer just chuckles and walks away.

Act Four [ ]

Seven and Musiker continue their wild ride through the streets of Los Angeles, with Seven remarking that she was not the worst driver on the roads. When they come to a traffic light turning red, Musiker insists that means they had to stop, but Seven keeps on going, narrowly avoiding crashing into a UPS truck. Seven tells Musiker that if she kills someone, she would blame Musiker for it; Musiker sarcastically suggests not aiming for them, in that case. Meanwhile, Rios is placed on a prison transport bus, and the ICE officer tells him that the end of the line will be the end of life as he knew it, before mockingly bidding goodbye to the "captain".

Back on La Sirena , Jurati goes to the Queen to help speed up repairing the ship's systems. Recalcitrant, the Queen forces Jurati to persuade her, only to threaten the "trusting" angle of her argument. She compares Jurati to the brightest peacock yet so afraid to shine, which was why she was constantly alone. Jurati retorts that the Queen was cut off from the hive, and had to engage in slow conversation with her just to have someone to talk to, adding that she would not be so chatty if something happened to her friends. When the Queen asks what she would get in return for her help, Jurati offers herself: she has the Queen's thoughts in her mind after their connection, and both disliked being alone, so she offers to exchange "sad sack stories in between pressing catastrophes". The Queen appears intrigued.

The prison bus with Rios is making its way to its destination. In Los Angeles, Musiker sees Rios' file has been updated, and that he is being moved to a Sanctuary District on the US- Mexico border. Musiker asks if Jurati has the transporters up, and the doctor confirms she is almost ready to commence beaming. But the LAPD have caught up with them, and Seven evades them the best she can while Jurati prepares to beam them to Rios' location. Jurati warns Seven that she was about to ask her to do something counterintuitive: hit the brakes. Seven is incredulous, as the police were all around them, but Jurati insists she trust her. Seven brings the stolen police car to a stop, and the police are on them with their guns drawn, demanding they step out of the car. As one officer watches, however, Seven and Musiker disappear right in front of her, beamed away by Jurati. The car is now empty, and Seven and Musiker are standing on a hill overlooking the highway where Rios' bus is approaching, coming fast. Back on the ship, Jurati is again looking away from the Queen, who begins calling her name; Jurati has limited her access again, and moves quickly away from her, even as the Queen begins shouting.

Outside 10 Forward Avenue, Guinan has finished her donations, and is now preparing to leave. Picard pleads with her for help, but Guinan is adamant that she is not the Watcher he seeks. Finally, he takes a gamble and identifies himself to her, saying that four hundred years from then, she would be his oldest and dearest friend. The name "Picard" gets Guinan's attention, and she tells him to get into her car. Guinan explains that he was actually looking for a supervisor , also called a Watcher, who was assigned to watch over the destiny of certain individuals; she admits the specifics were vague, as they were not big on explanations. However, she will be able to get Picard a "sort of" face-to-face meeting; when he asks about the "sort of", all Guinan can say is that the Watcher will want to meet with him.

At a nearby park

Guinan explains that Watchers are defensive about their assignments, and warns Picard not to lie or hide anything from this Watcher, or the Watcher would "probably bite [his] eyelids off". She takes Picard's combadge out of her pocket, having taken it off him, as she thought it might be a weapon. Just then, a girl in a butterfly-patterned dress and with colorless eyes tells Guinan that she should run. Picard asks if this was the Watcher, and Guinan says it wasn't. The girl again tells Guinan to leave before she lost her "very tenuous grip on [her] need to put [her] boot through [Guinan's] face". Guinan knows she means it, and gets up to leave. Picard asks her not to leave Earth just yet, that while she was done with listening, she was not done with Humanity yet. " Change always comes later than we think it should, " he reasons. Guinan does not answer, as she walks away. The girl takes him a distance away, before demanding his combadge. Picard protests that without it, he was stranded; after a moment, the girl tells him to keep it, but remove its energy cell, and Picard does so. Then the girl's eyes return to normal, and she walks away. Another man at a nearby food counter now has the same eyes as the girl, and points him down a nearby tunnel. Picard makes his way there, when another man now assumes the same eyes. Picard asks about the "pantomime", and is told it was in case he was being followed. Finally, he sees a woman in a suit standing nearby, and asks if she was a friend of Guinan's. " Absolutely not, " is her reply, as she turns. Picard stares in astonishment, recognizing her as Laris and calling her by name, although she appears to be Human. Without a word, the Watcher puts a hand on his shoulder and both disappear in a rectangular puff of smoke.

Doing some reading at lunchtime

At Jackson Roykirk Plaza , Q is sitting at a table outside, reading a copy of the Los Angeles Times discussing a return to space exploration, when he observes a young woman reading a book. " You can't do it, " he says, though whether to himself or the woman is unclear. " And you know it. Oh sure, you played the game for a while, when nothing was at stake. When the only challenge was fooling everybody into thinking you had the nerve. But now it's real. The fear is choking you. Well, here's the truth: you can't do it. People are gonna die. And now your fear, your doubt, is the loudest voice in your head. " He snaps his fingers… and the woman starts laughing. Q looks confused, as he snaps his fingers again. But nothing happens. " That's unexpected, " he says. " And most unfortunate. "

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Where are you? " " Uh… lost in the past, I suppose. In more ways than one. "

" I can just imagine a little Picard wandering around here saying, "Milk, chocolate, hot." "

" Hey! Hey! You mind stopping that noise? " " Yeah, OK, fine! I just like that song . OK? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Apologies. "

" There is something very important that I have to tell you and you know how valuable listening can be as an El-Aurian. " " Who the hell are you, old man? "

" Why does the past hurt so much? "

" Humankind will change. You must be patient. " " You know who has the luxury of patience here? Someone who looks like you and not like me. This world had more potential than I had ever imagined. "

" History's darkest moments can be a tipping point for change. There's still good here. " " Trust me, it ain't tipping soon. And I've been on this planet a lot longer than you. "

" Agnes P. Jurati, you've the quickened flush of a woman with much to ask and no time to ask it. " " There are a number of a, systems that are still down after our uh– " " Entwinement, shall we say… "

" …cloaking doesn't matter right now. " " Says the woman who won't meet my gaze for fear of being seen, to be in plain view, and still unafraid. There's great strength in that. " " Well, I'm sure it helps when you have an army behind you. " " Its how you get the army to follow you my dear, how you teach the choir to sing. " " Look, about the transporters… " " Don't politely demure yourself, convince me. "

" Beware the species that has not yet purged that word, they're simply begging to be conquered. " " Help? " " Trust. "

Background information [ ]

Production [ ].

• 21 March 2022 : Title publicly revealed via StarTrek.com and Paramount Press Express . [1] [2]

Cast and characters [ ]

• Ito Aghayere is the third actress to play Guinan , after Whoopi Goldberg and Isis J. Jones . She takes over the role from Goldberg, portraying a younger version of the character who last appeared in the season premiere, " The Star Gazer ".
• Kirk Randolph Thatcher reprises his role from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as 'Punk on Bus'.
• Orla Brady portrays a new character, the enigmatic Watcher. Picard still mistakes her for Laris at first glance, although the Watcher does not have pointed Romulan ears.

Continuity [ ]

• The punk on the bus is listening to " I Still Hate You ", a sequel song to " I Hate You " which was heard in 1986 in San Francisco . Both Kirk and Seven refer to the respective songs as "noise."
• Unlike almost all of her other appearances, Guinan does not wear a hat at all in this episode. Previously, Guinan only appeared without some kind of headgear in a scene in Star Trek Generations .
• Guinan again has a bottle of Saurian brandy in Ten Forward ( PIC : " The Star Gazer "), despite the episode taking place several decades before official first contact between Humans and aliens.
• Picard refers to Guinan as one of his oldest and dearest friends. A similar sentiment between the two was shared in TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II " and " Time's Arrow, Part II ", among other episodes. In the original timeline, their friendship originated in 1893 , when Guinan first met Picard as he traveled back in time to the 19th century ( TNG : " Time's Arrow "). However, Guinan does not remember that encounter as she meets Picard in this episode. This was explained by Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas : “ This Guinan wouldn't remember Picard because in this alternate timeline, the TNG episode "Time's Arrow" never happened. Because there was no Federation, those events did not play out the same. No previous relationship exists. However, she still was likely traveling to Earth and, as we know, she hung around a bit. So this Guinan is different. But she, of course, can sense something is off. She's going through a kind of time-sickness thanks to Q's meddling with the timeline. ” [3]
• The uneasiness that El-Aurians feel due to changes to the timeline is revealed to be a peculiar time sickness called Af-Kelt . Previously, Guinan was shown to sense timeline changes in TNG : " Yesterday's Enterprise ", although no physical illness, like vomiting, occurred in that situation.
• Raffi's comment to Seven when they are about to steal a police car, " You can pilot a starship, but you can't drive a... ", is heavily reminiscent of the exchange between Archer and T'Pol as Archer is about to steal a Dodge Ram in Detroit in 2004 in ENT : " Carpenter Street ". James T. Kirk is also shown to be a bad driver in TOS : " A Piece of the Action ".
• Rios is set to be transported to a Sanctuary District near the US-Mexico border ( DS9 : " Past Tense, Part I " et al.)
• The effect used for the disappearance of Picard and The Supervisor at the end of the episode is similar to Gary Seven 's transporter ( TOS : " Assignment: Earth ").
• Jackson Roykirk Plaza is named after the inventor of the Nomad MK-15c probe. ( TOS : " The Changeling ")
• The Los Angeles Times that Q is reading in Roykirk Plaza mentions Christopher Brynner seeking to prevent the unionization of his company. Brynner (of Brynner Information Systems ) previously appeared in DS9 : " Past Tense, Part I ", " Past Tense, Part II ", helping Jadzia Dax acquaint herself with the 21st century.
• "Butterflies" are a recurring motif of the season, first mentioned by Agnes Jurati in PIC : " Assimilation " in reference to potential damage to the timeline. During Picard and Guinan's first encounter with the Watcher, the latter presents as a small girl wearing a butterfly patterned dress.
• The license plate of Guinan's car in 2024 reads "S02 E01" in reference to the first appearance of Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation being in the first episode of the second season " The Child ". This, coincidentally, would also refer to Guinan's first appearance on Picard , in PIC : " The Star Gazer ".

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard
• Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine
• Michelle Hurd as Raffaela Musiker
• Orla Brady as Tallinn
• Santiago Cabrera as Cristóbal Rios

Special guest stars [ ]

• John de Lancie as Q

Guest starring [ ]

• Annie Wersching as Borg Queen
• Madeline Wise as Yvette Picard
• Ito Aghayere as Guinan
• Leif Gantvoort as Officer Morris
• Penelope Mitchell as Renée Picard
• Sol Rodriguez as Teresa Ramirez
• Chloé Wepper as Gabi
• Karl T. Wright as Francis Puga

Co-starring [ ]

• Oscar Camacho as Pedro
• Sean Freeland as Tall Man
• Kelli Dawn Hancock as Officer Stauss
• Isabella Meneses as Small Girl
• Brian Quinn as Dale
• Kirk Randolph Thatcher as Mohawk Punk
• Danielle Thorpe as Officer Johnson
• Dylan Von Halle as Young Picard

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Dartenea Bryant as LAPD officer
• Paul Lacovara as LAPD officer
• Daniel Mooney as Young Man
• Bus passengers
• Homeless people
• ICE officers
• LAPD officers
• Watcher host #2

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Tiffany Abney as stunt double for Michelle Hurd
• Sera Trimble as stunt double for Jeri Ryan

Stand-ins [ ]

• Margot Muraszkiewicz as stand-in for Jeri Ryan
• Thadeus Welch as stand-in for Patrick Stewart

References [ ]

1781 ; 1945 ; 2022 ; 2024 ; 20th century ; 21st century ; 21st Street Mission ; 2400 ; 25th century ; 9-1-1 ; abacus ; Af-Kelt ; afternoon nap ; allegiance ; Americana III ; antique ; April ; army ; arrest ; assimilation ; ATM ; attorney ; authority ; auto-repair ; bar ; beer ; boot ; bottled water ; brain ; brake ; Britannica ; bus ; butterfly ; calculus ; California ; captain ; cashier ; Central America ; Château Picard (location); Chateau Picard (wine); Chevrolet Metro ; chocolate milk ; chili con carne ; choir ; chronometer ; Chrysler 300 ; Chrysler Pacifica ; Cinnamon Crunch ; citizen ; city block ; clinic ; Clinica Las Mariposas ; cloaking device ; communicator ( combadge ); computer ; Confederation of Earth ; coordinates ; cop ; corkscrew ; counterfeiting ; cyberneticist ; days ; Dean Foods ; Department of Homeland Security ; destiny ; disinfecting wipes ; Dixon Hill ; Dixon Hill series ; doctor (occupation); doctor (title); Dodge Charger Pursuit ; donation center ; door ; Earth ; east ; El-Aurian ; Elnor ; energy cell ; England ; ETA ; Europa Mission ; exit sign ; eyelid ; face ; face-to-face ; fear ; Ferengi ; fire ; fire extinguisher ; fist ; Flag of California ; Flag of the United States of America ; Ford Bronco ; Ford Motor Company ; Ford Police Interceptor Utility ; France ; French language ; friend ; future ; generation ; Glock 17 ; GPS transponder ; Great Value ; hair ; Hamm's Beer ; hand ; Handmaid's Tale, The ; hatred ; head ; hell ; " hell on earth "; Highway 14 ; Hispanic ; history ; Honda Civic ; Honey Nut O's ; hospital ; host ; hour ; Hulu ; Human ; Hyundai Elantra ; " I Still Hate You "; ICE transfer bus number 735 ; Immigration and Customs Enforcement (aka ICE ); immigration raid ; International DuraStar ; Ithaca 37 ; Jameson Irish Whiskey ; Jesus ; jigsaw puzzle ; Juan Hancock ; jukebox ; Jupiter ; kidnapping ; La Sirena , CSS ; labor union ; LAPD ; Laris ; Lay's ; license plate ; life ; Los Angelenos Rock ( FM 88.8 ); Los Angeles Beacon ; Los Angeles Heritage Site ; Los Angeles Times ; Malibu Rum ; MCI MC-12 ; med school ; memory ; Metro Local ; Mexico ; Michelob Ultra ; mile ; Milky Way Galaxy ; mind ; mister ; Moss, Elisabeth ; name ; NASA ; Nazis ; New Flyer D40LF ; Nissan Rogue Sport ; " Non, je ne regrette rien "; north ; northwest ; occupation ; officer ; one way sign ; owl ; Pabst Blue Ribbon ; Pallid Son, The ; palm tree ; pantomime ; parking lot ; past ; pawn shop ; phaser ; Piaf, Édith ; Picard family ; pinot noir ; pit bull ; Pledge of Allegiance ; poetry ; police vehicle ; power ; Prince, Jaco ; processing center ( detention facility ); propulsion system ; Q ; rat ; receptionist ; red ; retirement ; Rios' mother ; robot ; Romulan ; Roykirk, Jackson ; San Francisco ; Sanctuary City ; Sanctuary District ; sea level ; second ; Second World War ; self-repair mode ; Setina ; shotgun ; " So Good "; song ; soul ; Spanish language ; Spectrum Mobile ; Stargazer , USS ; starship ; stop sign ; Strawberry Awake ; subspace relay ; Swaford ; table ; taser ; teddy bear ; temperature ; Ten-code ; theft ; thief ; time ; time sickness ; timeline ; Tito's Handmade Vodka ; Toyota ; Toyota Corolla ; Toyota Tundra ; transfer papers ( deportation papers ); transporter ; trial ; tricorder ; truck ; Truly ; tunnels ; Uber ; unionization ; UPS ; Utilimaster Aeromaster ; vomiting ; Watcher ; water ; Wells Fargo Bank ; wine ; words ; yellow

Boxing poster references [ ]

Bailey, Will ; Mason, Mike ; McCook, Kid ; Prado, Manuel

Console references [ ]

autosequence control ; bio filter ; comms ; energizing coil ; EPS network ; network node ; pattern buffer ; systems error

LAPD Police Vehicle references [ ]

bench summons ; call records ; crime lists ; EMS ; FBI ; fingerprint ; Fire Department ; license number ; license plate ; missing person ; mugshot ; VIN search ; warrant

Los Angeles County locations [ ]

9th Street ; 10 Forward Avenue ; 11th Avenue ; 11th Street ; 12th Avenue ; 2Cal ; 400 South Hope Street ; 600 Wilshire ; 611 Place ; 611 Wilshire ; 617 West 7th Building ; 655 Hope ; 717 Olympic ; 740 South Olive ; 8th and Hope ; 800 South Figueroa ; 800 Wilshire Building ; 811 Wilshire ; 818 Plaza ; 825 South Hill ; Adams Street ; Aon Center ; Apex Tower ; AT&T Switching Center ; Atelier ; Bank of America Plaza ; Biltmore Tower ; Bloc, The ; Bottega Louie ; Broadway ; Brockman Building ; Carrier Center ; Castaic ; Chick Hearn Court ; Circa Complex ; City National Bank Building ; City National Plaza ; Collection Building, The ; Downtown Los Angeles ; E-Central Hotel ; Eight and Grand Apartments ; EY Plaza ; Figueroa at Wilshire ; Figueroa Tower ; Floyd's Barber Shop ; Foreman & Clark Building ; FourFortyFour South Flower ; Forward Avenue ; fundamental ; Garfield Building ; Gas Company Tower ; General Petroleum Building ; Georgia Street ; Giannini Place ; Great Western Building ; Heron Building ; Hotel Figueroa ; International Jewelry Center ; Jackson Roykirk Plaza ; James Oviatt Building ; Jasper Building ; James M. Wood Boulevard ; Level DTLA ; Los Angeles Convention Center ; Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters ; MacArthur Park ; Markridge Industrial Tower ; MCI Center ; Met Lofts ; Microsoft Theater ; Millennium Biltmore Hotel ; Mr. Masala ; Olive Center, The ; Olive Street ; One Wilshire ; Pacific Financial Center ; Paraiso Restaurant ; Paramount Sports Arena ; Park Central Building ; Park Fifth Tower Apartments ; Petroleum Building ; Quinby Building ; Roosevelt Building ; St. Vincent Jewelry Center ; Sheraton Grand Hotel ; Spring Street ; Staples Center ; Telecom Center LA ; Title Guarantee and Trust Company Building ; Tom's Urban ; Union Station ; United Building ; US Bank Tower ; Villa Flores ; Wedbush Center ; Wells Fargo Center ; William Fox Building ; Yolanda's Carniceria ; West Garage

Los Angeles Times references [ ]

1610 ; 1970s ; 1990s ; 2015 ; 2028 ; Appel, Fredric ; April ; Argosy Foundation ; Brynner, Christopher ; Brynner Information Systems ; Comeau, Joe ; Eliscu, Will ; Europa ; Fountain Valley ; Galilei, Galileo ; Galileo ; Great Basin ; Idaho ; India ; Iran ; January ; June ; Los Angeles Basin ; Luna ; Musa ; Okumura, Matt ; Newsome, Gavin ; October ; San Francisco ; Santa Ana winds ; September ; Shango ; Sol system ; Southern California ; Southland ; Sun, Fengpeng ; Sunday ; transparent aluminum ; University of Missouri-Kansas City ; United States Forest Service ; Voyager 1 ; Voyager 2 ; Western United States ; wildfires ; Williams ; Zuelzke, Mark

The Pallid Son references [ ]

Bailey Publishing Press ; businessman ; captain of industry ; Cole, Cassiopeia ; Cole, Jimmy ; deacon ; Death By Any Other Name ; fly ; Goines family ; gutter ; mob boss ; Pallid Son, The ; penthouse ; politician ; Ramse ; Robin Hood ; Titan Club, The ; Torme, Tracy

External links [ ]

• " Watcher " at the Internet Movie Database
• " Watcher " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " "Discovering Watcher" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

The 7 Best New Movies and Shows Coming to Paramount+ in May 2024

From the season finale of ‘Evil’ to the last eight episodes of ‘The Chi’, check out these latest additions on the streaming platform.

May is heating up, and Paramount+ is here to turn up the temperature with a sizzling selection of new movies and shows. From the gripping finale of Evil to the adrenaline-pumping last eight episodes of The Chi , our lineup is guaranteed to set your screens on fire. No need for endless scrolling - dive straight into a world of pure entertainment with these hot additions to the streaming service.

Without further ado, here are the top 7 must-watch movies and shows coming to Paramount+ this May 2024. Get ready to turn up the excitement!

Behind the Music (Season 2)

Available on: May 1

Executive produced by: Bruce Gillmer and Michael Maniaci

Cast: Bell Biv DeVoe, Trace Adkins and Wolfgang Van Halen

Based on the original VH1 show from 1997, the Paramount+ reboot of Behind the Music returns for Season 2. Each episode of the documentary series follows a musician or musical group as they recount the highs and lows of their success stories. From their underground days to their rise to popularity, the show offers a behind-the-scenes look into the makings of a superstar. Season 2 profiles Bell Biv DeVoe , a subunit formed by three members of New Edition , country music singer Trace Adkins , and rock musician Wolfgang Van Halen , who’s famously known as the son of the late Eddie Van Halen.

In this season, Behind the Music takes a look at the beginnings of Bell Biv DeVoe. After New Edition’s fame began to plummet in the late ‘80s, members Ronnie DeVoe , Ricky Bell , and Michael Bivins , saw this as a chance to create something fresh under the name Bell Biv DeVoe. Despite their constant falling outs with critics and record execs, the trio managed to win the public with their album “Poison”. As for Adkins, a near-fatal shooting didn’t stop the singer from dominating the country music charts, thanks to his album “Dreamin’ Out Loud”. But following his success, Adkins hit an all-time low with his lackluster sophomore album and bouts of alcoholism. As for Wolfgang, growing up with a rockstar father shaped his love for music. However, when Eddie’s passing in 2020 shook Wolfgang’s world, it was uncertain whether he’d maintain his passion for music ever again. It took a couple of years, but Wolfgang is back with his own sound while ensuring his father’s legacy remains.

Star Trek: Discovery (Season 5 New Episodes)

Available on: May 2

Created by: Bryan Fuller, Alex Kurtzman

Cast: Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Wilson Cruz, Blu del Barrio, David Ajala, Callum Keith Rennie

Set in the 23rd century, Star Trek: Discovery takes place a decade before Star Trek: The Original Series , long before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise explored the galaxies. In the fifth and final installment of Star Trek: Discovery , Captain Burnham (Martin-Green) goes on a sweeping odyssey across the stars in pursuit of an ancient power shrouded in secrecy for centuries. But Burnham and her crew are not alone in their pursuit . Evil adversaries lurk in the cosmic shadows, driven by a hunger to claim this power for themselves.

Determined to unravel the mystery, our team confronts sinister foes, navigates shifting alliances, and avoids treachery at all costs. With time slipping away and unforeseen threats emerging, the Discovery crew must tread the universe carefully. Don’t miss out on the last 5 episodes this May, with the season finale on May 30, 2024 .

A Gentleman in Moscow (New Episodes)

Available on: May 3

Directors: Sam Miller, Sarah O’Gorman

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Alexa Goodall, Johnny Harris, Fehinti Balogun

Post-Revolutionary Russia is a very sensitive period. But for the aristocratic Count Alexander Rostov (McGregor) , he tries to make the best out of it. As punishment for his noble background, Rostov is trapped in the luxurious Hotel Metropol until further notice. Failure to stay in the hotel earns him a swift death. Although he’s confined to the hotel’s spaces, Rostov makes the most out of his circumstances. Throughout his stay, Rostov has made friends along the way, including Nina Kulikova ( Leah Balmforth ), the curious daughter of a hotel employee.

Taking inspiration from Russia’s rich yet tumultuous history, A Gentleman in Moscow lays the stage for human connection even when Rostov is disconnected from the outside. Through encounters with love, friendship, and fleeting romance, Rostov learns that there’s so much life to be found within the constraints of his world .

Kiss the Future

Available on: May 7

Directed by: Nenad Cicin-Sain

Cast: Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Christine Amanpour, Bill Clinton

Kiss the Future , a documentary produced by Oscar-winning duo Ben Affleck and Matt Damon shines a light on the unbreakable spirit of Sarajevo’s residents during the bloody Balkan civil war of the early 1990s. Despite the grim realities of war, the Sarajevan civilians continue to display a remarkable sense of resilience through various means, one of them through an underground movement centered on art and music. Their perseverance and creativity soon garnered widespread attention, prompting an American aid worker to enlist the support of the band U2 in raising awareness about the conflict. U2’s historic concert, attended by over 45,000 locals in a liberated city, stands as a testament to the battles the Sarajevan community has endured.

The Chi (Season 6 Part 2)

Available on: May 10

Created by: Lena Waithe

Cast: Jacob Latimore, Alex Hibbert, Yolonda Ross, Shamon Brown Jr., Michael V. Epps, Birgundi Baker, Luke James, Curtiss Cook, Genesis Denise Hale, (Judae’a Brown)

Part 2 of of The Chi Season 6 delivers another rollercoaster ride for the residents of Chicago’s South Side . First premiering on August 6, 2023, this season sees Emmett (Latimore) and Kiesha (Baker) find their once blissful relationship tested by Emmet’s risky partnership with Douda (Cook), who grapples with the aftermath of Q’s murder and its impact on his inner circle’s loyalties. Victor (James), faces challenges coming from his complicated past as he steps into his new role as a city councilman.

Meanwhile, newlyweds Jada (Ross) and Darnell (Boyce) anxiously watch over their son Emmett after he makes a worrying decision. As for Rob (Shumpert) and Tiff’s(Hall) cannabis business and Jake’s (Epps) apparel line, things are starting to take off. Papa continues to wrestle with the grief of losing his father (Brown Jr.). Maisha (Hale) pursues her career aspirations despite distractions from her manager Jemma (Brown). As everyone is busy with their own lives, little do they know that an impending danger threatens the safety of everyone, all of which culminates in Season 6’s last eight episodes.

The X Files (Season 1)

Available on: May 13

Created by: Chris Carter

Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi

The X-Files follows FBI agents Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) as they dive into the weird and unexplained, encountering out-of-this-world phenomena that challenge human logic. Mulder’s all-in belief in the paranormal clashes with Scully’s skeptic and scientific approach, setting the stage for TV’s favorite dynamic duo . From uncovering government cover-ups to having close encounters with the extraterrestrial kind, they face dangers that not only threaten their careers but also shake their personal beliefs. With an infectious on-screen personality and enviable chemistry, Duchovny and Anderson have cemented themselves as one of TV’s most memorable pairs.

Evil (Season 4)

Available on: May 23

Created by: Robert and Michelle King

Cast: Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi, Michael Emerson, Kurt Fuller, Andrea Martin, Christine Lahti, Brooklyn Shuck, Skylar Gray, Maddy Crocco, Dalya Knapp

When a forensic psychologist, a Catholic seminarian, and a tech contractor come together, you know it’s serious business. The fourth and final season of Evil is making rounds again as the trio uncovers paranormal phenomena, occult conspiracies, and eerie occurrences, blending science and spirituality into their investigations.

In its final season, Evil amps up the stakes as Kristen (Herbers), David (Colter), and Ben (Mandvi) tackle cases involving rogue tech, possessed animals, demonic forces, and sinister relics . Amidst their cases, they have their own personal trials to face: Kristen goes head-to-head with Leland, David struggles with a Vatican assignment dealing with paranormal surveillance, and Ben faces a jinn. With their team facing dissolution due to funding cuts, the trio races against time to confront Evil’s ultimate manifestations.

Trump and the RNC say they will recruit 100,000 poll watchers. Experts are skeptical

Republicans say they will mobilize more than 100,000 people in battleground states to ensure “transparency and fairness” in the 2024 election, an announcement criticized by some as risking potential voter intimidation.

“Whenever a ballot is being cast or counted, Republican poll watchers will be observing the process and reporting any irregularity,” the Republican National Committee announced Friday in conjunction with former President Donald Trump’s campaign. “In the event of an irregularity or problem, RNC lawyers and the volunteer attorneys that they have coordinated will provide rapid response services to resolve the issue using a sophisticated, tested action protocol."

The announcement accused Democrats of using “tricks” in 2020 but did not say what those tricks were. There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, but Trump and many of his Republican supporters have falsely alleged his loss was the result of illegal manipulation.

Recruiting poll watchers can be 'real hard'

One Democratic expert was skeptical that Republicans would be able to muster such a lofty number of volunteer poll watchers.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said there’s no way they will find 100,000 volunteers, and they might as well have announced 10 million. He said he ran an initiative mobilizing tens of thousands of volunteers for Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, but, “It’s hard,” he said. “It’s real hard.”

Trump has previously called for volunteers to monitor elections. His 2016 campaign website asked for volunteers to “Help Me Stop Crooked Hillary From Rigging This Election!”

Levitt said there’s mundane work for volunteers at the polls to do, like help people register to vote or get a ballot in the language they speak, but that’s not what the RNC is advertising.

“If your job is to stand there and watch for fraud that doesn’t happen, it’s really hard to recruit people for that job, because then the job is — stand for 15 hours," Levitt said.

Obama famously recruited and mobilized millions of volunteers during his 2008 campaign. Adav Noti, the executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, called that a "different kind of volunteering" that involved phone banking and door-knocking.

"Most poll watchers are operating on a local level," Noti said. "It does not work to try to recruit poll watchers to go to some precinct halfway across the country and sit there for 12 hours while nothing happens and watch people cast their votes."

RNC says there are five parts to its plan

The RNC’s announcement said its volunteers would observe in five key areas: “logic and accuracy machine testing,” early voting, Election Day voting, mail ballot processing, and post-election activity such as canvass, audits and recounts. The party also said each battleground would have an “election integrity hotline.” The party did not say which specific states or provide numbers for those hotlines.

There is no evidence that voting machines altered the 2020 election, but false statements that machines made by Dominion Voting Systems were rigged to alter the 2020 election led to Fox News paying $787 million to the company to settle a defamation lawsuit. People who inaccurately question the results of the 2020 election have also targeted absentee ballots, but there is no evidence that wrongfully submitted or erroneous absentee ballots flipped the election.

“Every ballot. Every precinct. Every processing center. Every county. Every battleground state. We will be there,” RNC co-chair Lara Trump, who is married to Donald Trump's son Eric, said in the announcement. "The RNC is hiring hundreds of election integrity staff across the map – more than ever before because our Party will be recruiting thousands of more observers to protect the vote in 2024. These campaign officials in states are tasked with recruiting, training, and when possible, shifting poll watchers and poll workers day in and day out."

Levitt said the biggest risk to the RNC's program announcement is if some voters hear about a potential massive presence of Republican poll watchers and − fearing confrontation with someone challenging their eligibility − decide it would be too much of a hassle for them to vote. But he said those infrequent voters, are voting Republican more and more, so it could come back to bite them.

A poll in February and March found that the more elections people voted in since 2018, the more likely they were to support President Joe Biden, and the fewer elections people had voted in, the more likely they were to support Trump.

“I think that the RNC doesn’t realize that those are their voters now,” Levitt said.

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Watcher Entertainment Launches Its Own Subscription Streaming Service: ‘We’re Leaving YouTube’

By Todd Spangler

Todd Spangler

NY Digital Editor

• Roku CEO Anthony Wood 2023 Pay Slips to $20.2 Million, Media Chief Charlie Collier’s Compensation Was $6.8 Million 2 days ago
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• Comcast Chief Brian Roberts Earned $35.5 Million in 2023, Up 11% 3 days ago

UPDATED: After building its business on YouTube and generating more than 400 million views on the platform, Watcher Entertainment will now offer full series of its original unscripted content — including “Ghost Files,” “Mystery Files” and “Puppet History” — exclusively on its new, subscription-based streaming service.

Watcher was formed by former BuzzFeed creators Steven Lim , Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej , who were behind popular BuzzFeed shows “Worth It” and “BuzzFeed Unsolved.” They launched their YouTube channel in January 2020.

Popular on Variety

On Friday, the trio posted on X that “We’re leaving YouTube” with a link to their “Goodbye YouTube” video. The company originally told Variety that Watcher would eventually remove all of its videos from YouTube, where it currently has 2.9 million subscribers. However, according to Bergara, Watcher is not fully exiting YouTube: It will still keep its backlog of videos on YouTube, and going forward will put the first episodes of new seasons on YouTube — while the full new seasons will be exclusively available on the Watcher streamer.

RELATED: Watcher’s Move Off YouTube to Paid Streaming Service Sparks Angry Fan Backlash

The Watcher Entertainment team’s bet is that they can earn more money by charging fans for their content than from YouTube ad revenue.

Lim, who serves as CEO, said the trio have spent more than a decade creating and distributing their content through YouTube, which “has been a wonderful home for us to sharpen our skills as filmmakers, grow as human beings, and connect directly with our fans.”

“From the very start of Watcher, our goal was to make television-quality unscripted content, and while YouTube helped us start that journey, the only way we can fully realize that vision is to do it on our own platform,” Bergara said. “So while it’s scary to leave a place that has been an amazing home to us, we know that this is a risk worth taking, just like leaving BuzzFeed was back in 2019.”

Madej added, “In four short years we’ve built a library of shows that we’re incredibly proud of, and we’ve done it by sticking to our creative values. We intend to keep delivering the world’s best unscripted entertainment, and the streamer is our way of cutting out the middleman and giving our viewers the opportunity to directly support the stuff they love.”

To date, L.A.-based Watcher Entertainment has produced 22 original series in the paranormal, food and edutainment spaces.

With the launch of the Watcher subscription service, the company plans to invest in new projects — such as sending “Ghost Files” to an international locale for the first time. Watcher also plans to debut new series, including a reunion of the team behind BuzzFeed’s food show “Worth It”: Andrew Ilnyckyj and Adam Bianchi will join Steven Lim in a new series called “Travel Season,” billed as a “globetrotting food and travel odyssey,” beginning in the food mecca of Seoul, South Korea.

Here’s the Watcher team’s “Goodbye YouTube” video:

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Original ‘Star Trek’ Enterprise Model Is Found After Being Missing for Decades

The 33-inch model surfaced on eBay after disappearing around 1979. An auction house is giving it to the son of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek.”

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By Emily Schmall

The first model of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the starship that appeared in the opening credits of the original “Star Trek” television series , has been returned to Eugene Roddenberry Jr., the son of the creator of the series, decades after it went missing.

“After a long journey, she’s home,” Mr. Roddenberry wrote on social media on Thursday.

For die-hard Trekkies, the model’s disappearance had become the subject of folklore, so an eBay listing last fall, with a starting bid of $1,000, didn’t go unnoticed.

“Red alert,” someone in an online costume and prop-making forum wrote, linking to the listing.

Mr. Roddenberry’s father, Gene Roddenberry, created the television series, which first aired in 1966 and ran for three seasons. It spawned numerous spinoffs, several films and a franchise that has included conventions and legions of devoted fans with an avid interest in memorabilia.

The seller of the model was bombarded with inquiries and quickly took the listing down.

The seller contacted Heritage Auctions to authenticate it, the auction house’s executive vice president, Joe Maddalena, said on Saturday. As soon as the seller, who said he had found it in a storage unit, brought it to the auction house’s office in Beverly Hills, Calif., Mr. Maddalena said he knew it was real.

“That’s when I reached out to Rod to say, ‘We’ve got this. This is it,’” he said, adding that the model was being transferred to Mr. Roddenberry.

Mr. Roddenberry, who is known as Rod, said on Saturday that he would restore the model and seek to have it displayed in a museum or other institution. He said reclaiming the item had only piqued his interest in the circumstances about its disappearance.

“Whoever borrowed it or misplaced it or lost it, something happened somewhere,” he said. “Where’s it been?”

It was unclear how the model ended up in the storage unit and who had it before its discovery.

The original U.S.S. Enterprise, a 33-inch model, was mostly made of solid wood by Richard C. Datin, a model maker for the Howard Anderson Company, a special-effects company that created the opening credits for some of the 20th century’s biggest TV shows .

An enlarged 11-foot model was used in subsequent “Star Trek” television episodes, and is now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum , where it was donated by Paramount Studios in 1974.

Mr. Roddenberry, who said he gave the seller a “reward” for its recovery but did not disclose the terms, assembled a group of “Star Trek” production veterans, model makers and restoration specialists in Beverly Hills to authenticate the find.

The group included a “Star Trek” art supervisor, Michael Okuda, and his wife, Denise, an artist on “Star Trek” television series and films, and Gary Kerr, a “Trek x-pert” who served as technical consultant for the Smithsonian during a 2016 restoration of the 11-foot model.

“We spent at least an hour photographing it, inspecting the paint, inspecting the dirt, looking under the base, the patina on the stem, the grain in the wood,” Mr. Roddenberry said.

“It was a unanimous ‘This is 100 percent the one,’” he said.

Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991 , kept the original model, which appeared in the show’s opening credits and pilot episode, on his desk.

Mr. Kerr compared the model to 1960s photos he had of the model on Mr. Roddenberry’s desk.

“The wood grain matched exactly, so that was it,” he said on Saturday.

The model went missing after Mr. Roddenberry lent it to the makers of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which was released in 1979, Mr. Maddalena said.

“This is a major discovery,” he said, likening the model to the ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” a prop that was stolen in 2005 and recovered by the F.B.I. in 2018, and that Heritage Auctions is selling.

While the slippers represent hope, he said, the starship Enterprise model “represents dreams.”

“It’s a portal to what could be,” he said.

Emily Schmall covers breaking news and feature stories and is based in Chicago. More about Emily Schmall

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