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

1. The Lackluster Dialogue

Akiva Goldsman probably shouldn't be allowed to write dialogue anymore, because much like the series premiere, episode two is full of clunky and unnatural-sounding verbiage.

For starters, much of the episode is comprised of hilariously blatant expository dialogue, simply vomiting plot information at the viewer in the most staid and lazily unsubtle fashion possible.

Elsewhere, there's a ton of snoozy technobabble, especially during Picard and Laris' brief foray into forensic investigation, to say nothing of some fairly cringe-worthy attempts at humour and those aforementioned ill-placed doses of profanity.

That Patrick Stewart in particular isn't getting punchier dialogue to work with is incredibly frustrating, because it's limiting his otherwise remarkable performance.

So, there are plenty of issues in this week's episode, but there's also plenty that worked. Here's what they got right...