“Dominion” is the seventh episode of the third season of the TV show “Star Trek: Picard” and follows “The Bounty“. It’s available in various countries on the Paramount+ streaming platform and in many other countries on Amazon Prime Video.
Note. This article contains some spoilers about “Dominion”.
Looking for someone trustworthy, the USS Titan remains hidden. Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) starts opening up to Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) about his strange abilities, giving him an idea that is potentially very dangerous but could be decisive. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and his daughter Alandra (Micah Burton) try to restore Data (Brent Spiner) but he shares his new body with Lore, who tries to impose his dominance.
The TV show “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” showed the dark side of the Federation and in particular Section 31, for which the end justifies the means while ethics and morals are obstacles. Experiments conducted at the time to find a way to strike the Dominion at its heart with the genocide of the Changelings had unforeseen consequences that are only now being revealed.
If there’s a flaw in this episode it is that it includes some infodump to tell some important facts connected to the Dominion war and its aftermath. All in all, it didn’t seem like a serious flaw to me also thinking that “Star Trek: Picard” was never based only on fast-paced action and adventure. The ethical and moral themes haven’t always been developed in depth but at least they offer some food for thought, in this case also in connection to the Dominion war.
The developments of this season’s story arc also concern Jack Crusher. He showed some strange abilities in previous episodes and even more so in this one. That’s why Vadic (Amanda Plummer) wants to take him alive at all costs. In his case, the revelations have begun and are going in a certain direction but the episode ends with something still unresolved.
In an eventful episode, there’s also an attempt to restore Data’s mind in his new body. The contrast between Data and Lore was explored multiple times in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and now their minds share the same body in a Jekyll/Hyde situation. We can expect other developments in his story as well.
Overall, “Dominion” is an episode that has plot developments based mostly on revelations that lay a few cards on the table as we approach the season finale. It’s built to continue to create dangers for the protagonists on the USS Titan and thus maintain high tension in anticipation of the final developments, also for the protagonists absent in this episode.
