Marina Sirtis

            On Wednesday morning I finished memorizing “S.S. in Uruguay” by Serge Gainsbourg and found one set of chords online.

            I got caught up on my journal.

            In the late morning I went up the street to Vina Pharmacy to get them to call my doctor to ask him to renew a prescription. I handed them the container so they would know what to ask about but I forgot to get it back. There was still some cream inside.

            I had soybean and broccoli soup for lunch.

            I took a siesta while the workmen downstairs were blasting easy listening pop music like Abba and Barry Manilow under my head.

            When I got up I went back over to Vina to get my container but at first they couldn’t find it because they’d thrown it in the garbage and had to dig it out.

            In addition to the radio one of the workers downstairs brings pre-recorded music. Most of it is by the original artists but he also brings karaoke versions of songs like “Father to Son” by Cat Stevens and sings over the music. He did several songs in a row and before one love song that I didn’t quite recognize he called out, “Andre, this one’s for you!”

            I skimmed almost half of The Federal Indian Day Schools of the Maritimes and made notes. One interesting thing was that chiefs had a lot of power over the government in relation to teachers and conditions because if he didn’t like what was going on he could shut down the school simply by stopping parents from sending their kids there. Also the power of petition on the part of the bands was influential.

            I had the last of my soup for dinner and watched episode seven of Star Trek Picard. This story opens with a flashback to three weeks before when Dr Jurati was approached by Commodore Oh of Starfleet. She does a mind meld with Jurati to show her a vision of the future if synths are allowed to exist. She tells her to swallow a tracking device and travel with Picard.

            The present begins with Hugh and Elnor confronted by Rizzo and other Tal Shiar agents. She kills several ex-Borg to get Hugh to tell her where Soji went but he won’t talk. She can’t kill Hugh because he has diplomatic immunity and killing him would be an act of war against the Federation.

Picard and Soji arrive on Nepenthe and are met by a wild looking teenage girl named Kestra with a bow and arrow. She is the daughter of Deanna Troy and Will Riker. She and Soji become friends immediately but when Picard says they are looking for Soji's father Kestra asks the name of her father. Picard says, Data” and then Kestra says to Soji, “So you’re an android.” This is a shock to Soji and she has a hard time dealing with it. They are welcomed by Deanna and Will and we learn that they have an older son that died a few years ago of a rare disease and it has made them very protective of Kestra. Soji is not sure what is real after what she has learned or whether she can trust Picard after her recent betrayal by Narek. Picard tells her to use her abilities to listen to his heartbeat and read his pupils to know if he’s trustworthy. Soji is still not sure. It’s Kestra that later convinces Soji to trust Picard.

The La Sirena has been locked in a tractor beam but suddenly they are released but that is so Narek can follow the tracker that is implanted in Dr Jurati. They know they are being followed take evasive action but Agnes has not revealed that she carries the beacon inside of her. She asks to go back to Earth and Raffi finds it strange that Agnes the synthetic life expert was so adamant about going into space to meet Soji and now wants nothing to do with her despite not having yet met her.

            Hugh tells Elnor that they have to reactivate the Borg queen and only an ex-Borg can do it but Rizzo returns and says that would be a treaty violation, which would allow her to legally kill Hugh. Elnor fights with her to defend Hugh but while he is only focused on fighting her she uses their battle as a distraction to throw a blade that kills Hugh. She escapes from Elnor’s thrown knife by teleport.

            On the La Sirena Chris realizes that their pursuer is tracking them somehow. Chris tells Agnes that he thinks Raffi is carrying a tracker. Agnes says, “It isn’t her!” He laughs and says, “So what, it’s you?” When Narek comes back on their scanners Agnes goes to the replicator and asks for uranium hydride. She injects some into her neck, throws up and goes into a coma. But the tracker has been destroyed.

            Elnor finds a signal device similar to what Seven of Nine gave to Picard and presses it. It says “Fenris SOS Activated”. The Fenris Rangers are the organization of vigilantes of which Seven is a member. I think they are pushing for another spin-off. They could call it The Borg Ranger.

            Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi put in a very good performance in this episode. She has said that she was on Star Trek the Next generation for four years before her mother believed that she had a TV show. Mom thought it was just an excuse to not come home.