“Disengage” is the second episode of the third season of the TV show “Star Trek: Picard” and follows “The Next Generation“. 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 “Disengage”.
Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) find themselves in a seemingly hopeless situation with the systems that keep Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) alive barely functioning. Above all, an unknown starship threatens them and tries to teleport Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers). After the terrorist attack, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) is ordered to disengage but she doesn’t believe the official statements and decides to investigate on her own.
The immediate threat from bounty hunter Vadic (Amanda Plummer) makes up much of the plot in “Disengage”, which is also used to offer some information about Jack Crusher. For example, we discover that he used various aliases including James Cole, the name of the protagonist of the movie and also of the TV show “12 Monkeys”: Todd Stashwick, who plays Captain Liam Shaw here, was a regular in some seasons of that show and Terry Matalas was among its creators.
This episode contains a lot of action and the dangers for the protagonists keep the attention of the audience but it has the flaw in that all the twists are very obvious in both subplots. All the answers given in the episode are the most obvious and widely anticipated in discussions within the fandom. It was one of the flaws especially in the first season of “Star Trek: Discovery” and I hoped that the producers had learned their lesson after the criticisms received. In the case of “Disengage” these are only a few revelations and there is still a large part of the plot to be developed, so we can hope for better twists in the future.
Overall, “Disengage” is a pleasant episode to watch for the action and the progression of the plot, where a few cards begin to be laid on the table. The ending is a double cliffhanger, in the sense that the USS Titan is facing an unwinnable battle while Raffi Musiker’s future seems to become more complicated due to her choices.
