Star Trek: Picard Series Retrospective
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The series finale of Paramount Plus’ Star Trek: Picard, the three-season “love letter” to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s iconic Captain, Jean-Luc Picard, has finally concluded, and with it, there is now a chance to fully examine the series and discuss what the series did good, what it might have done better, and the possible impact it might have on future of the Star Trek franchise.
The Good
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Despite some of its flaws, which are discussed later, there are really so many more good things one can say about the series overall. One of the show’s strengths was maintaining the continuity established by previous Star Trek movies and series, including the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie, Star Trek (2009), which established the destruction of the Romulan homeworld and subsequent diaspora of the Romulan people, which also set the stage for most of the plot of Season One of the series.
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Season One also effectively dealt with the loss of Data, who was destroyed while sacrificing his life for Picard in Star Trek: Nemesis. Season Two was a season-long time-travel adventure that not only featured one of the best characters introduced in Star Trek: The Generation, namely the troublesome “Q”, but also attempted to channel some of the best time-travel Star Trek adventures in the franchise to date, such as Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek: First Contact. Season Two also developed a lot of Picard’s backstory with his parents, especially his mother.
Season Three brought together the entire bridge crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation together for what was essentially a ten-episode film to close the series out with a bang, to overall fan satisfaction.
There were also many surprise appearances of various legacy characters throughout the series, especially in the final season. Cameos were sort of sparse during the first two seasons, featuring only a handful of major legacy characters such as Riker, Troi, Q, and Guinan, as well as some more minor characters like Hugh, and Bruce Maddox.
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The final season featured even more. In addition to the entire main cast of characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Picard also surprisingly brought back Ro Laren and Shelby, as well as Tuvok, from Star Trek: Voyager, whose post-show fates had not previously been revealed. Showrunner Terry Matalas, as well as many fans, wanted former Voyager Captain, Kathryn Janeway, from Star Trek: Voyager to appear in the final season, however, the producers turned Matalas down, likely due to budgetary concerns. Admiral Janeway did previously have a brief cameo in Star Trek: Nemesis, however, and she was name-dropped several times by Seven throughout the series, but, unfortunately, Tuvok was ultimately chosen to be the one to appear and promote Seven to Captain at the conclusion of the series.
The inclusion of former Borg Drone and Voyager crewmember, Seven of Nine (aka “Seven”), as a regular character in Star Trek: Picard was an unexpectedly brilliant plan for her, and the showrunners for Picard developed her into an even more amazing character than she was in Star Trek: Voyager. Additionally, making Seven canonically Queer, and newly promoted Captain of the newest Enterprise, is a major landmark in terms of diversity and LGBTQ+ representation for the franchise, which has seen an increase in recent Trek series, especially Star Trek: Discovery.
The final season simply cannot be discussed without mentioning the fact that we got “Data” back, as well as a rebuilt Enterprise-D, things that most fans did not expect. A trip to a Starfleet ship museum operated by Geordi gave fans an opportunity to see ships from all of the previous Star Trek series, including the Defiant from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Voyager from Star Trek: Voyager, and even reveals a surprising reappearance of the Klingon Bird of Prey, “The Bounty”, which was previously commandeered by Kirk and his crew for use in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and was last seen sinking into the Pacific Ocean at the end of that film. Also, the series revisited Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Changelings for part of the season, featuring popular Hollywood actress Amanda Plummer as a cagey new nemesis with a very cool-looking advanced starship, called “The Shrike,” for the crew to have to confront throughout most of the season.
Image Source: Trekcore
Also, in a sweet touch, Picard, the eternal career Starfleet officer who supposedly had no time, let alone desire to be around kids during the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation is finally given an (adult) child of his own, Jack Crusher, played by British actor, Ed Speleer, with former Picard “flame,” Beverly Crusher, being his mother. As far as new characters to the Star Trek franchise are concerned, an honorable mention definitely has to go to Todd Stashwick, who was introduced in Season Three as the late Captain Shaw of the Titan-A.
Although Captain Shaw started off being quite rude and disrespectful to our favorite characters at the start of the season, he grew to become a surprisingly beloved character by the time of his untimely death at the end of the season, leaving fans wanting more of him.
The Bad
The series did take some time to find its footing during the first two seasons. Most fans are in agreement that the final season, which collected the entire (and I do mean entire) original bridge crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation was hands-down the best of the bunch. For much of the series, the pacing felt “off” to many fans, with major plotlines either taking too long to get going or feeling rushed to their final conclusion.
As previous reviews have noted, much of the action in the series, like with other “Nu-Trek” series and movies, can be a bit frenetic and hard for some people to follow and is potentially overwhelming for others. Also, the series often introduced a lot of good ideas that did not get much, if any follow-up, such as elements of the former Romulan Empire being involved in a Starfleet conspiracy in Season One, and the brief Wesley Crusher cameo at the end of Season Two.
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The synthetic character from Season One, Soji, who was a major part of the plot in Season One, was completely dropped during the Second Season. Elnor, who spent most of Season Two dead returned to life at the end of Season Two only to be completely dropped in Season Three for unknown reasons, as were most of the rest of the new characters introduced in Season One. The mysterious reappearance of Q to Jack Crusher in a Season Three post-credits appearance, following his apparent death at the conclusion of Season Two, is never satisfactorily explained, although it may be if a follow-up series is ordered.
Like the final seasons of Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Picard went very “heavy” on the Borg, which can be partially forgiven if only because of Picard’s and Seven’s intensely personal history with the Borg. However, given the conclusion of Season Three, it is the hope of some fans that, aside from the separate “Jurati” Borg faction introduced in Season Two, the Borg have been effectively been dealt with as a threat once and for all, and “space” is made for the development of new galactic menaces in future series and movies.
The Future
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With Seven promoted to Captain of the newly christened Enterprise-G at the conclusion of Season Three and Jack and Raffi joining the crew, along with LaForge’s adult daughters, there has been a huge fan push to use them as a springboard to launch a new Star Trek series featuring their ongoing adventures.
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No official plans to do so have been announced, however, both the fans and actors have expressed hope and support for such a “Star Trek Legacy” project. Current Star Trek producer, Alex Kurtzman, has stated that he and the other brass at Paramount have heard the fans “loud and clear” and that “anything is possible”, although the next officially announced series will instead focus on another “new generation” of characters at Starfleet Academy.
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Source(s): Comicbook.com, Looper, Hollywood Reporter
https://www.looper.com/1264824/star-trek-voyager-cameo-almost-in-picard/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/star-trek-starfleet-academy-show-paramount-1235363880/
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