Star Trek: Picard — Engage/Disengage
Star Trek: Picard season 1 just concluded. An honest review from a Star Trek fanboy
Spoiler alert for Star Trek: Picard Season 1 which is available on Amazon Prime Video. Read further if you have already watched the series.
I was waiting with bated breath ever since Patrick Stewart took the stage in the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in August to talk about the series which made him come back to TV as Jean Luc Picard after 25 years and nearly 2 decades since the last Star Trek film, Nemesis screened.
True to the anticipation, season 1 started off with a positive note. The very first episode started with Picard’s chateau in France which had come up multiple times in next generation as well. It was nostalgic to see Data albeit the older Brent Spiner converse with Picard addressing him as captain in a dream sequence. That settled it. I was hooked. Isa as Dahj and the newer characters being introduced felt organic. The fight sequences and the mystery behind Dahj helped propel the first episode well.
Finally after 2 episodes he gathers a motley crew and a spaceship called the “La Sirena” captained by Rios played by Santiago Cabrera who played his part well. Despite owning the ship and being the captain getting accustomed to an ex-captain and an admiral of starfleet was handled well. I did have some issues with Michelle Hurd’s Raffi calling Picard or Jean Luc as we know him as JL! That was awful to say the least and very cringeworthy everytime she did it through the series.
Dahj’s backstory connecting to Data and the premise to find her twin so they can stop the Romulans from destroying her was good. Picard coming out of retirement to take on this arduous task even when everybody around him basically said he is an old man and should not do it still made sense. I mean, it is Picard! But, somewhere the story changed from Dahj/Soji to being focused on Picard. It’s right there in the title so I should have seen the coming but still.
For me, the story fizzled out in Nepenthe episode. Don’t get me wrong, it was great seeing Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis play Will Riker and Deanna Troi settled on a peaceful planet making Pizza Pies! But, that episode was solely created to trigger this exact response in us and did not do much to the story arc except maybe to get Will’s help at the very end. It felt forced to include the older characters to make sure they had fans of NG watch this series as well.
The other nitpick I have is the ship. It’s very difficult to picture Picard in anything but the enterprise. Those manual controls on that big ship requiring ensigns to control was awesome to watch. Watching Rios deal with “touch” screens and moving hands in the air felt, well, empty!
Gene’s vision of the Star Trek universe is unlike any other futuristic saga involving aliens. Take Star Wars, Aliens (movie series), Independence Day movies or just about any movie or series involving aliens. It is almost always about aliens trying to take over our world and how the world always unites and rises up against them. Star Wars was different. It was the first and maybe only series which made human beings superior. To boldly go where no one has ever gone before and be explorers and make first contact and protect our galaxy from threats through the United Federation of planets. That was the vision which made Star Trek famous and why I love watching it. Picard series had none of that. It came with its own backstory of synths destroying mars which got them banned and made Picard resign as he was in charge of that whole exercise. All well and good. But, where is the exploration, contact? They forced the first contact and exploration into one by going to Soji’s home planet and the first contact was with synths developed by the now very famous Soong and Bruce Maddox! Not very Star Trek is it?
Another major hit the show took was to not have anything happen actually. If you see the series, there is a whole lot of talk about a lot of things where synths end the world and due to which hundreds of Romulan ships go to attack Coppelius, the synth home world. But, it again fizzles out and the end is very predictable including what happens to Picard (which I rather not reveal).
All in all, an exciting addition to the Star Trek universe but, it did not meet my expectations on the story front. Would have expected more story, action, more worlds perhaps? I get the format of the series has changed from next-generation where every episode told 1 story to a series where they tell 1 story over 10 episodes. Still, having more depth to the story and to the characters will help. I did not get what Michelle Hurd’s role was other than connecting Picard with Rios maybe? Still looking forward to season 2 of Picard but with muted expectations!
