Star Trek Picard: 5 Ups & 5 Downs From Episode 2 'Maps And Legends'

4. The Mystery Box Underwhelms

Taking some inspiration from his pal J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman has spent the first two episodes of Picard inundating audiences with a glut of mysteries to presumably be unravelled over the course of the season.

But this second episode struggled to find a compelling way to build upon what we learned in the first, instead simply throwing more and more questions at the audience.

There is political intrigue and Machiavellian scheming at Starfleet, sure, and there are other potentially compelling enigmas in play such as the fate of Dr. Bruce Maddox, the role of the Borg Cube, and Soji's part in all of this.

But for a mere 90 minutes of television, it does feel perhaps a little too front-loaded with Big Questions at the expense of deeper characterisation.