Isa Briones is Definitely Earning Her Pay as STAR TREK: PICARD Hurtles Into Its Exciting Season Finale

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede While Isa Briones is perfectly within her rights to keep her salary details to herself, this can be said with confidence: whatever she’s being paid for her performances on STAR TREK: PICARD, she probably deserves a raise. The Season 1 finale of STAR TREK: PICARD – which is the #1 Canadian Entertainment Specialty series of all time – airs Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on CTV Sci-Fi Channel. For anyone needing to catch up, the finale will be preceded by a Season 1 marathon, beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET. On the subject of Briones earning her money, here’s a SPOILER ALERT, as up-to-date plot details, including what occurred in last week’s episode of STAR TREK: PICARD, are discussed below. Briones began the series playing Dahj Asha, who turned out to be – much to her own surprise – an android daughter of the late Lieutenant Commander Data. So Briones had to play Dahj as both a human (at least in her own mind) and then an android. Then it was discovered that Dahj had a twin sister, Soji Asha, who went through the same process of discovery as Dahj, from thinking she was human, to realizing she’s an android. So that was sort of two more roles for Briones. And in last week’s episode of STAR TREK: PICARD, Briones expanded her contribution with an additional role, playing Sutra, another android doppelganger. The difference with Sutra is that she never has been under any illusions that she’s human, but she has emerged as a late candidate to possibly be the biggest threat of all. So that’s at least three roles for Briones, if we’re being conservative, and five – and counting? – at the upper end. Whatever the math, the 21-year-old Briones, who previously was known mostly for her role in the stage production of “Hamilton,” has made quite a splash in science fiction. “I think it’s every actor’s dream to know that you’re putting something out that has a built-in audience,” Briones said. “People have been waiting almost 20 years for this iconic character (Jean-Luc Picard, played by Sir Patrick Stewart) to come back. The fact that we all get to do that ride together makes it the most exciting journey.” The creative team behind STAR TREK: PICARD has deftly sprinkled in past cast members from the STAR TREK universe, including Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh), and Brent Spiner (Data in dream sequences, and also a new character, Altan Inigo Soong). But the story has not been overwhelmed by nostalgia, focusing its attention on fresh characters played by the likes of Alison Pill (Agnes Jurati), Michelle Hurd (Raffi), Santiago Cabrera (Chris Rios), Harry Treadaway (Narek), Evan Evagora (Elnor), and, of course, Briones. When it was mentioned to Stewart that Picard is something of a father figure to Trekkies everywhere, he comically scoffed and said, “I thought he was looked on as a sex symbol … yes, father figure, okay.” But when Briones interjected that the new cast members on STAR TREK: PICARD appreciated how welcoming and generous Stewart had been as they were introduced to this world, Stewart added, “Just to follow that up, by the way, I now feel that we’ve become brothers and sisters. It’s no longer a father figure, with all the children. We are a unit. Right?” “Yes, definitely,” Briones agreed. billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv