Star Trek: Picard
I enjoy CBS Access’s Discovery. I had to pay for another streaming app because of my Trek fandom. My daughter-in-law loves the other CBS shows. It balances out our stealing their Netflix. Star Trek Discovery’s space faring ensemble began to gel in season two. I especially enjoyed the loan of Captain Pike and Spock who were a part of Season Two.
CBS has Television rights — Entertainment Business is weird
I am rather enthralled with the new Star Trek series Picard. I have read far more of the reviews, lists, Easter egg reveals, and other fanservice than I ever have. I have felt many of these reviews seem off point. The reviewer criticizing the show for not being their own vision of Star Trek. The galaxy of the youthful binge-watching generation often criticizes it from a different perspective. Their vison of television formed in a different era than, should I call it classic Next Generation. I don’t research ratings, but everyone says Picard is a huge hit. This is exciting; it means Pike and Spock will get a show back on the Enterprise 1701 (before Kirk and McCoy). It will be a series based on the Starship NCC-1701 not the bloody A, B, C, D, or E.
I must admit (boomer – OK ) I remember the original series (TOS) when first in prime time. Primetime is a rather anachronistic concept. As a science fiction nerd in 9th grade; I was a fan from the beginning. I had read several books and many short stories in the genre. Series television didn’t have overarching plots in the 1960s. A TV show had a general narrative to present an unconnected play each week. Much of the narrative history of Star Trek occurred after TOS was canceled. TOS began a passionate base of fans that has been ever expanding, akin to the spatial anomaly in the Devron system. Star Trek has always been a rather uneven presentation which has led to redundant lists of the best episodes, worst episodes, the good movies, the failed movies, and of course rankings of aliens, special effects, villains, and star ships. Some efforts suffer from the available technology and budget for special effects. Fans do love special effects but what holds the Trek Universe together are the cast, ships, and the unknown. Star Trek broke ground with a crew including an Asian, an African woman, and a Vulcan. Spock was the perfect foil for all diversity plots. People love not only the interaction of the main characters Kirk, Spock, and McCoy; fans love the minor characters. I have never been to a Trek convention, but I do read and watch vids. Any actor with a Star Trek connection is part of the family.
No Red Shirts in Picard — lots of dying anyway
First the crew of Picard how are they sizing up as season one is about to end? Picard is different from any other Star Trek; Picard is retired and not happily. He feels Starfleet has strayed from its mission and purpose. He has no ship at all, especially no Enterprise. We don’t know who the crew is as we meet new characters. His old colleague and ship booker, not living in a fine Chateau Raffi, is only hitching a ride. Picard’s Romulan manager caretakers stay at the vineyard to ensure Picard wines keep production on track. Another chaotic aspect of Picard is the characters come and go. Characters written in from earlier Star Trek series have the life expectancy of a Red Shirt. A crew as described by Dr. Jurati in the last episode has developed. Picard has strong characters. If these actors and their characters become the crew, the fans will care about them. The interaction between characters, the meshing of their backgrounds, and their endearing quirks form the storylines. Picard has a good crew just not sure who is in it.
I feel many people in the past brought in as directors and writers have not appreciated the ships. Star Trek fans love the ships they want to believe they are being told stories of the best ship and crew in the fleet. Roddenberry brought in the concept of the navy; the ships named Enterprise are honored all the way back to sailing ships. The La Sirena is Capt. Rios’ ship. He is former Starfleet as everyone is except Soji the human android. Her twin sister Dahj was accepted at the Daystrom Institute also Starfleet, even Soji has a connection. Maybe we will come to love the La Sirena, I do like the five holos who act as doctor, navigator, etc. They are all siblings of Rios as if he was cloned. The holos are given stereotypical ethnic accents from various European countries, Emmet speaks in Spanish. These guys are both ship and crew. Seven of Nine lost her nifty fighter saving the La Sirena, but now seems to have a Borg Cube as her personal ride. Seven is bringing an Abrams tank to an off-road four-wheeler race. As with the crew in Picard the La Sirena has slowly revealed its capabilities. Maybe if they save Starfleet from the Romulan subterfuge Picard and Rios will be given an even neater ship for the next season. I hope they bring the holos along.
Raffi piecing together Rios’ past from his five holos on the La Sirena
Lastly, we come to the unknown. We know this is the appeal; it is in the opening ‘to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Now changed to no one has gone before. What tale can you bring us that excites our need to explore, our curiosity. Star Trek tries hard to maintain this science written into fiction. We accept as fact fantastic nonsense, still we want to believe real problems are being solved with science. Yes, warp drive would not pass Einstein’s class and transporters, really? Humans do not accept limits. We believe in an imaginative future; we do not know all we will know. Boundaries can never be permanent as humans evolve. Star Trek can ignore vast distances and time. Writers create and visit mirror universes when convenient. Every planetoid has breathable atmosphere, every world has some humanoid life form, and most every species can communicate through the universal translator. Observations from a fan, do they never think a protective suit would be a good precaution and how about seat belts?
The series Picard is up to its keisters in Romulans. Romulans are one of the oldest of Star Trek aliens. Romulans (rather Roman like) have always been villains and mysterious. First appearing in one of my favorite episodes “Balance of Terror” the Romulan Empire has always been a strong enemy hence the long-standing neutral zone. The Picard series trails along the leading edge of the alternate timeline established in the JJ Abrams movie Star Trek. He took a wrecking ball to the narrative timeline. Picard picks up many unknowns left from Trek history by movies and the last shows of Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. The three shows were all set in the same era. We have much unknown to unravel in this series Picard.
Picard has great depth in the characters. Many scenes add insights into the famed Captain Picard. It seems every episode more chinks off the marble man end up lying on the deck. Also, each character has a backstory that fits into this mosaic. The flashbacks to past events build a narrative; this is a world we do not know. None of the movies needed explanation. Each movie was a new adventure for characters we all knew with a history already understood. Picard is retired without a successful mission of salvation. He still broods on this betrayal. The world is not orderly, and no one can be trusted. After the collapse of the Romulan Star Empire the entire quadrant is in flux. We are a little disoriented in the new Star Trek: Picard not knowing our crew or our ship or the new world order. The plot reveals a complicated enemy. Obviously, the Romulan Tal Shiar are evil and this cult the Zhat Vash must be deeper into evil. Stopping synthetic lifeforms who attempt to end all organic life isn’t that what our heroes in Star Trek Discovery sacrificed everything to achieve? Is Soji really the Destroyer summoner of all demons? Two episodes left to bring some known to our unknown. A second season is in the works, therefore some of the crew and characters must survive.
No Ship No Crew No Rank but a rescue plan — well half a plan
Nagging questions that may never be resolved. Where are these Remans and why did we invent them in Star Trek Nemesis? Why did JJ Abrams not make Romulans in Star Trek, the movie that destroyed of all time and history, look more Romulan? If Bruce Maddox had a lab destroyed by Tal Shiar and he owed Bjazyl some type of currency, he was not on Soji’s home planet. Jean Luc Picard says Commodore Oh is Vulcan, is her Romulan ancestry known? One reviewer claimed she is half Vulcan and half Romulan, but early Spock on Kirk’s Enterprise had never seen a Romulan. The older Ambassador Spock on Next Generation “Unification” didn’t reveal any interaction between Romulans and Vulcans. Conquest seemed the only partnership Romulans wanted. Commodore Oh has to be a Romulan undercover as was Ambassador T’Pel in STNG “Data’s Day”. This leaves questions of Starfleet involvement in the synthetic annihilation plot, is the Federation squadron really an ally to Picard and Soji? The Admonition reveals a flash of Data’s face is there a connection to Soji’s home world? If you know the Admonition is going to drive some members of your cult mad, why let them carry phasers? If Narek has found the Soji home world whose ship enters the transwarp corridor behind the La Sirena? Is one of Picard’s Romulan friends a spy for Commodore Oh at his vineyard? Was the whole attack on the Chateau an attempt to get Jurati on the ship? (Answer yes apparently it was.) Why does Soji know so many things Borg and Romulan? Is there a path of redemption for Narek with Soji? (I think not) If there was a Soji version named Jana on the Ibn Majid wasn’t that almost before Bruce Maddox arrived and wouldn’t the Romulans already know the location of Soji’s home world? Picard has to wrap with two episodes left. Yes, Picard isn’t as Utopian, it is more violent, it has more swears, and we are lost without a Federation we can rely on. Star Trek has always risen above the clunker episodes, the Gorn rubber suit, the impossible coincidences in a story, and the plot holes. If we love the characters, cheer for the ship, and get to test the unknown, it works.
James (yes his Dad & I wanted Tiberius) will be a 3rd Generation Trekkie
Why was Sulu left stranded on a freezing planet phasering rocks to survive? Shuttle crafts were not invented until the second season. Early on there was some confusion about phasers and photon torpedoes, but it’s all OK. I began a fan as a teen and will be one until I die. I do not own a uniform, nor do I know any Klingon. I will not seek to learn Viveen. Still my opinion is not an objective review of an entertainment critic; I am a fan. The more stylish reviewers I‘ve read of Picard have included obvious errors. Were they not paying attention, maybe they were blinded by the special effects? Special effects that bring the wonder to our modern Trek. McCoy’s first medical tricorder was a salt shaker. Scotty can run a Mac Plus HyperCard display like no mere 20th century man, we don’t care. What makes us care? It is the story and the people we care about. The new Star Trek: Picard makes you care. It is not like that which has come before, no new Star Trek adventure ever is.