ST · SEASON 22×06

Children of Mars

NOMADIC PICK · ESSENTIAL VIEWINGA moving, near-wordless prologue to Picard.

FIRST SHOWN (US): 9 January 2020
ON: CBS All Access
STARDATE: None given
DIRECTED BY: Mark Pellington
CONNECTS TO: Picard

WRITTEN BYWritten by Kirsten Beyer and Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

Two schoolgirls on Earth, each with a parent working on Mars, turn a minor collision into a bitter rivalry, until events far beyond their school intrude on the day.

SYNOPSIS

SPOILERS

Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS

Kima and Lil are schoolgirls on Earth, and each has a parent working on Mars. They get off on the wrong foot when Lil bumps into Kima, and a petty grudge takes hold. Small slights escalate through the day until the pair come to blows and are sent to wait for their punishment. Then the news breaks. It is First Contact Day, and rogue synthetics have attacked Mars, devastating the Utopia Planitia shipyards and killing thousands of people. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard appears in the news coverage. Neither girl knows whether her family has survived. Sitting side by side in shock, Kima and Lil take each other's hand, their rivalry suddenly meaningless.

DID YOU KNOW?

01Released two weeks before Star Trek: Picard premiered, it serves as a prologue to that series. Patrick Stewart's Admiral Picard is seen in news footage.
02Much of the near-wordless short plays over Peter Gabriel's cover of David Bowie's “Heroes”.
03The story is set on First Contact Day, 5 April, the Federation holiday marking humanity's first meeting with the Vulcans.

SOURCES WE CHECKED