In my review of the first-season finale of Picard, I used the famous Anton Chekhov metaphor about how if you hang a gun on the wall early in the story, it should be fired late in the story. While I think that metaphor remains apt, I think an even better one to discuss the first season of Picard as a whole is juggling a lot of hard-boiled eggs.
The show caught most of them, but a few fell to the ground, and a few of those shattered when they hit.
Looking back on the first season, the running themes seem to be how one deals with failure and regret. It’s an interesting approach to take, given that one of the hallmarks of the Jean-Luc Picard character through seven years on television and four feature films is one of spectacular competence. Captain Picard always got it right, always knew what he was doing, always was able to overcome whatever hardships were in his way, using his wits, his intelligence, and his crew, who always had his back.
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There were exceptions, of course. The Borg captured and suborned him in “The Best of Both Worlds” two-parter, and that put a pretty big chink in his armor, particularly in “I, Borg” and First Contact. Gul Madred tortured him and came within a hairsbreadth of breaking him in “Chain of Command, Part II.”
But otherwise, Picard has always succeeded.
Yet everything we see in Picard is the artifact of his own failures. When Romulus’s sun went nova, he left the Enterprise, and accepted the promotion to admiral that Jim Kirk told him never to accept, in order to lead a huge rescue armada. But then Mars was all but destroyed, seemingly by rogue synths, costing Starfleet its shipyard and leading the Federation to ban synths and cancel Picard’s rescue operation.
Picard then insists that they not cancel the rescue, as too much is at stake. And he’s right—Starfleet is supposed to be in the business of helping people. When Praxis went blooey a hundred years earlier, Starfleet helped the Klingons, and they become a strong ally.
But Starfleet stands its ground, Picard threatens to resign if they don’t reconsider—
—and they call his bluff.
Suddenly, the Jean-Luc Picard who figured out the truth about Ira Graves before everyone else did, who was able to get the Acamarians to consider reuniting, who served as a Klingon Arbiter of Succession, who outsmarted a Romulan plot to discredit an admiral and start a war, who exposed a Cardassian plot to wipe out a Bajoran terrorist, who exposed an admiral’s plot to displace the Bak’u—found himself on the losing side.
Starfleet didn’t need him anymore, so he quit, and sulked like Achilles in his tent. Left without his commission, he returned to the home he rejected as a boy, and took over the family winery.
For fourteen years. He abandoned his aide and best friend, Rafi Musiker. He abandoned the Romulans. He retreated and took himself out of the world that had rejected his notions of right and wrong.
It’s the (literal) age-old battle. The one fight you will always lose is against time. Your mind slows down, your body slows down, you become less effective, less canny. You become more set in your ways.
Dramatic heroic fiction—which Star Trek has always been—tends to show its regular characters in their primes. Even the older or younger characters are close to their primes, doing their best work and being their best selves—because if they weren’t, we wouldn’t want to watch a TV show about them.
Less common is to see such characters—such heroes—past their prime. When Picard was first publicly announced, the thing about it that most interested me was seeing a hero who was in the twilight of his life (the character of Picard is 94 years old in the present-day of the series). This sort of thing is more commonly seen in movies (two particularly strong examples are Unforgiven, a script Clint Eastwood held onto for years until he was old enough to play the lead, and another Sir Patrick Stewart vehicle, Logan), but is less commonly seen on television. (Though one great example is the British show New Tricks, about retired detectives who help solve cold cases.)
This entire season is about Picard getting back to himself, becoming once again the person he’s meant to be: the hero. He’s The Captain, he’s the one who solves problems and fixes things. And along the way he has to make up for all the things he’s fucked up.
One of those things is something that isn’t so much fixing a thing as it is addressing his own unresolved guilt. Picard has spent the twenty years since we last saw him mourning the death of Data, a dear friend and comrade who should have outlived the senior staff on the Enterprise by centuries instead of predeceasing them. He sacrificed himself to save Picard from his evil twin Skippy, and when given an opportunity to do something for Data’s virtual daughters, he jumps at it.
Hanging over all this is the knowledge that Picard’s on borrowed time anyhow. On the final episode of TNG it was revealed that he had a brain issue that could turn into any number of illnesses, including Irumodic Syndrome (basically, Space Alzheimer’s). His old doctor from the Stargazer reminds him of that, and it finally comes to a head in the finale.
One wonders if the show hadn’t been renewed for a second season if the ending of “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2” would have been different, with Picard actually dying alongside Data. It would’ve been a fitting ending, especially since, after all that, he saves the day again. And does it while making a speech.
Along the way, he gets to expiate a few more demons. He reunites with Musiker and with Elnor, and both of them eventually come around to forgiving his shitty behavior toward them. Which he probably doesn’t deserve, but in both cases, coming back into their lives gives them a purpose they didn’t have before he returned. Musiker gets to be useful again, and do what she does best, while Elnor gets a lost cause to fight for (in fact, he gets a couple).
And Picard gets to reunite with Hugh and bond with Seven of Nine, and best of all Picard gets to see that the former Borg drones are being helped.
(Later they get massacred, but that was going to happen regardless, as Narek and Narissa being on the Cube meant that the xB’s were likely to get shot at sooner or later.)
One of the things I particularly enjoyed about this season is that this is the first Star Trek season that feels like it takes place in a galaxy where people live. It’s partly a function of it being the only series not to take place on a military installation of some kind—aside from DS9 all the others take place completely on starships, and DS9 takes place on what used to be a Cardassian station. But the waning days of the 24th century look lived-in. A lot of the thanks likely goes to director Hanelle M. Culpepper, who directed the first three episodes of the season. The visual feel she established is a perfect mix of old and new, with Star Trek’s trademark nostalgia for old things mixed with high-tech accoutrements. It feels like a happy future that acknowledges the past while still willing to move forward.
There were a lot of themes in this inaugural go-round, and they didn’t all resolve as well as one could hope. The biggest, and most important—as evidenced by what we saw in the very first scene and one of the last—is to give Data the exit that Nemesis utterly failed to give him. The final TNG movie is a disaster on several levels, and one of the many sins the film commits is cutting an important line of dialogue that sets up Data’s later sacrifice—a line that Data repeats in his final scene with Picard in the finale. That final scene in the quantum realm also allows Picard to accept Data’s death in a way that he obviously hadn’t up until then.
It’s a good thing there’s a second season, though, because there’s a great deal still to be resolved here. Is Agnes Jurati going to face justice for her cold-blooded murder of Bruce Maddox? (No, I’m not letting that go. And no, she wasn’t brainwashed, she was very obviously in control of her actions.) Even if she is found not guilty because of the influence of the Admonition, that isn’t for her or Picard to decide. What will happen to the xB’s? What will happen to the synths? What is the super synth overlord creature that looks like Dr. Octopus’s arms crossed with Cthulhu? Are Musiker and Seven a couple now, or what?
The biggest failure of this season is—after having it be part of the texture and driving the plot—the synth ban is reversed in an off-hand line of dialogue. That’s—um, inadequate, to say the least. So is the fact that the head of Starfleet Security has been revealed as a deep-cover Romulan spy, which is a major security breach. There’s a lot that needs to be addressed regarding Starfleet Command.
However, the show also has given us a lot of avenues to explore—whether in season two or other spinoffs or tie-in fiction or whatever. Seven of Nine and the Fenris Rangers. Kestra. Captain Riker on the Zheng He (okay, that was temporary, but still…). Kestra. Who’s in charge of the Enterprise now? (It should be Worf, as indicated in the Picard tie-in novel Last Best Hope.) Kestra. Stardust City. Kestra. Coppelius. Kestra. The Qowat Milat. Kestra. Other adventures of La Sirena both before and after this season. Kestra. Zhaban and Laris. Kestra. Also, Kestra.
The show has also explored Romulan culture more than any of its predecessors, which is a welcome change. While both Klingons and Romulans were introduced as the major adversaries to the Federation in the first season of the original series, the Klingons have gotten a lot more screen time and a lot more development. Since Picard used the one post-Nemesis event from the mainline universe we’d seen prior to this—the Romulan supernova from the 2009 Star Trek—it opened up the possibilities, and they’ve taken great advantage, adding texture and mythology and storytelling and factions to Romulan life that has beautifully expanded our understanding of the Vulcan offshoots. (They also used a naming convention for the Romulans established by Diane Duane in her brilliant novel My Enemy, My Ally.)
The best thing about the show, though, is the acting. Michelle Hurd, a great character actor often stuck in mediocre parts, has the role of a lifetime here as the complex, addictive-personality, brilliant, fucked-up Musiker. While I have serious problems with how she was written at times, Allison Pill is nothing short of superb as the tormented Jurati. Santiago Cabrera is delightful in the multiple roles of the more-complex-than-he-lets-on Rios as well as his five hilarious holograms. Tamlyn Tomita projects determined strength, showing both the Romulan and Vulcan sides of Oh. Ann Magnuson is a joy as the foul-mouthed Admiral Clancy. Jeri Ryan and Jonathan del Arco show the chaos of transitioning from Borg to human as Seven of Nine and Hugh, respectively, though in both cases I want to know more (and in the latter case, I’m kinda pissed that they killed him off). Necar Zadegan delightfully chews all the scenery as the unapologetically evil Bjayzl. Jamie McShane and Orla Brady are simply brilliant—and woefully underutilized, as we needed to see them again after episode three—as Zhaban and Laris. Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis are spectacular returning to their iconic roles of Riker and Troi (the former having the crowning moment of awesome in the finale, the latter having arguably her best scene as a space shrink in the history of the franchise when she smacks Picard upside the head in “Nepenthe“), while Lulu Wilson steals the entire season with her magnificent work as their daughter Kestra. Also, David Paymer, Rebecca Wisocky, and Evan Parke are excellent in brief roles as Picard’s old doctor, an insane Romulan, and a (justifiably) pissed-off Romulan, respectively.
Not everyone is at that level, sadly. Brent Spiner also returns to an iconic role, and also plays a new one. Both, though, are just feeble excuses to use Spiner again, but the uses of Data are self-indulgent and visually painful to look at—CGI and makeup can only do so much—while Altan Inigo Soong doesn’t really add anything to the proceedings. Isa Briones gets better as the season goes on—her confused post-activation Soji is her best work—but it’s a flatter performance than it should be. Evan Evagora is fine as Elnor, though Ian Nunney is way better as the younger version, but the character himself has precious little to actually do, so it’s really hard to judge him. And the less said about Harry Treadaway’s don’t-hate-me-because-I’m-beautiful Narek and Peyton List’s tiresome Narissa the better.
Oh, and that Stewart fella can act a little, too…
What’s best about Picard, though, is that it’s doing something that Star Trek hasn’t done in two decades, and that’s move forward. After Voyager ended in 2001 and Nemesis was released in 2002, all the new Trek (two TV series, three movies) has looked backward. Going back over the franchise’s fictional history has been the equivalent of navel-gazing, and while it has produced some strong material (the fourth season of Enterprise, the second season of Discovery, Star Trek Beyond), it’s mostly been wheel-spinning. The reason why there was excitement about the new Trek that came out from 1979-2002 was because the adventure was continuing. Kirk and the gang after the five-year mission, a new Enterprise a century after Kirk and the gang, a new station on the frontier, a ship lost in another quadrant, but all of it building on what came before.
Then came Enterprise and the Bad Robot movies and Discovery and it was all going over old ground. Now, though, Picard is finally taking us in the right direction, finally looking back in on the universe as its progressed instead of backsliding, finally telling frontstory instead of filling in backstory.
Can’t wait for season two…
Keith R.A. DeCandido was going to be a guest at HELIOsphere this weekend, but it—like every other convention this spring—has been cancelled. However, there will be a virtual con, “Beyond the Corona,” and Keith and Laura Antoniou will be hosting a discussion of Deep Space Nine on Sunday at 1pm. Check it out!
So KRAD – you’re saying they overused Kestra?
What about a fired gun that still has rounds left in the chambers? For instance, your personal autocorrect nemesis – the Spatial Trajector is in play again – I didn’t see anything to where it was damaged (unless I missed it) – so it and the Transwarp conduits are back in play, no?
IMO all the recent Treks have suffered from too many plotlines and an overdose of angst. Personally I would have much preferred a focus on ONE issue, be it Romulans, or synths, or Borg, or just Picard realizing he’s licked his wounds long enough, time to be up and doing!
It was good to see these actors again, I’ll give it that. A shame though they tried to squeeze so much plot and subject matter into ten episodes. Watching the current season of Better Call Saul now, also ten episodes, it’s a breath of fresh air to watch. Which tends to happen when you have the room to breathe.
“There’s a lot that needs to be addressed regarding Starfleet Command.”
Oh man, so true in universe, never mind in a series. I wonder how Discovery is going to deal with that.
Hahaha, “Skippy”.
Is Hugh actually human though? I mean he appears human but then so do a lot of Star Trek races. And if he was human, then at what point was he assimilated by the Borg.
I personally think Isa Briones did her best acting as Sutra: alluring, devious, and alien-like. The makeup and costuming definitely help. And it has nothing to do with her acting but girl can sing!
I was missing Zhaban and Laris after episode 3 too. I hope they come back but I wonder in what capacity now that Picard is traveling the stars.
With Commodore Oh having been the head of Starfleet Command for god knows how many years (not to mention other moles who have possibly infiltrated like Narissa/Russo), it seems the Romulans could have and still could attack and cripple Starfleet and the Federation if they so chose to do so. I doubt the implications of this will be addressed. Starfleet needs better screening procedures for its officers!
Harry Treadaway wasn’t a strong point of the show but he was nice to look at with his pop star tussled hair (lol) and who doesn’t love a British accent?
Speaking of accents, I have to admit that the copious use of ethnic Earth accents being used by Romulans would often take me out of the show and make me just see actors using their native dialect then suspend disbelief and believe these were aliens. Or was I just the only one who thought this?
Anyway, overall I enjoyed the season too and I’m looking forward to the continuing adventures.
I love this season, but pacing is just too all over the place. The first six or so episodes took a great, if meandering pace, but then they tried to cram way too much into the final. We needed more time with Elnor. We needed more time with the XBs. We needed to see Soji mourn her sister. We needed more resolution to the synth ban, Raffi’s relationship, and so much more. If they could have kept the pace from the first couple of episodes into the finale, it would have breathed more.
And what was up with all of the characters suddenly wearing StarFleet combadges in the final scene, after not wearing them throughout the rest of the series. My wife thought that meant that Raffi, Rios, and Picard were all re-enlisted in Starfleet or that their mission from then on is “sanctioned” by Starfleet/Federation… but if so, they never explain it onscreen like so many details in those final moments.
Also, I am wondering if Discover S3 will be treading “new” territory or if they are so far in the future that it doesn’t matter? If they really are in a post-Federation timeline, it seems somewhat likely that at some point that will get resigned to the bin of so many alternate futures seen in the series.
I’d say that Altan Soong’s presence served at least one purpose in the finale — it preserved the surprise of Data’s return by giving Spiner another role to account for his credit in the opening titles.
Definitely a lot of balls were dropped by the rushed and overly upbeat finale. I’ve been saying all along that it’s natural for even an optimistic story to start out dark, that I expected the problems to be resolved and the Federation’s values to be reaffirmed, but it was all too easy, and too much of the interesting stuff set up early in the season fell by the wayside as the overall synth arc became the near-exclusive focus. All in all, the season was too slow to get started and too hasty to wrap up.
@1/critter42: I don’t expect those technologies to be relevant, since they were never out of play. The trajector was in the “Queen’s Cell” the whole time, since before the Artifact cube suffered its collapse, yet the Borg didn’t do anything with it. And by the same token, the transwarp conduits aren’t new, they were there all along. Things like this are usually just plot conveniences, not plot drivers. When they don’t benefit the story, they tend to be ignored.
Looking back, the overarching question going into Season One for me was the same one that hung over The Force Awakens half a decade ago: Is it worth it?
The post-Nemesis literature had set up a nice cottage industry and, as Keith pointed out, advanced the Trek timeline during the 17 year period it kept looking back into the 22nd and 23rd Centuries. For those of us who grew up with the 24th Century, heh, it gave us the fix we were desperately jonesing for in the wake of Nemesis.
But the moment Picard was announced, I knew instantly that was all going out the airlock the same way the old Star Wars EU had gone following the Disney acquisition. So again, the question was it worth it? Was it worth losing the novel continuity and the adventures we’d followed for years during the dry period?
The jury’s still out on the Sequel Trilogy for me, but re: Picard, for the most part I’d have to say “Yes” for the reasons Keither outlined. We’ve gotten desperately needed canonical world-building with the Romulans, Data getting a more satisfactory send-off, advancing the Trek timeline forward again, etc.
Season One is far from perfect, but now that the biggest loose ends from Nemesis and the 2009 reboot have been tied up, I’m looking forward to see where Season Two goes.
Mr. Magic: The novel continuity isn’t “lost.” The books still exist. I’m staring right at them. For that matter, the pre-Force Awakens Star Wars novels also still exist.
I don’t know why people stress about what’s real in a fictional construct, or why movies based on comic books are different from their source material (example: the Tony Stark in the comics is precisely NOTHING like the way Robert Downey Jr. plays him in the MCU) and get to be the most popular movies on the planet, yet when novels based on TV shows differ from their source material, it’s a source of pearl-clutching and/or dismissal of those novels.
Trek on screen has been contradicting Trek in print since 1979, when the opening scene of The Motion Picture shitcanned Spock Must Die! It has ever been thus, from The Next Generation and its spinoffs contradicting the Klingon and Romulan cultures developed by John M. Ford and Diane Duane to First Contact contradicting Federation to Discovery contradicting Sarek and a number of other novels.
The Federation/First Contact dichotomy is a particularly good one, because Federation remains a well-regarded novel and First Contact remains a well-regarded movie. The world can survive with two different versions of Zefram Cochrane’s life, it can survive with two different versions of what happened after Nemesis……
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@9, @10 – and yet an awful lot of the Novel continuity, if not all of it, is able to be maintained – with the possible exception of Natasha Riker becoming Thaddeus Riker. There’s enough distance in time for Seven & the Full Circle Fleet to return to the Federation and for Seven to go off and join the Fenris Rangers, for Icheb to be promoted to Lt and sent off to the USS Coleman.
Beverley as Mrs Picard though…that might need a little more work to explain & work into the plot.
I haven’t read ‘Last Best Hope’ yet, was saving that for the Easter Holidays, but depending on when that begins, I’d’ve thought there’s still time for the chronology to catch up… isn’t there?
@10:
KRAD, I could’ve phrased my thoughts better.
What I meant was the end of the novel continuity as we’d known it. Obviously, the books are going to be there for a re-read at any time, just as with their counterparts over at Lucasfilm. And obviously, Picard tie-ins
But barring Beyer’s To Lose the Earth, which I know is still contracted for an October release (as of this writing anyway), we likely won’t see any new stories set in that particular iteration and with any original characters due to corporate mandates and canonical developments — though, granted, given alternate timelines are part and parcel
And for those of us who grew up with that continuity and fell back upon it for our Trek fix during the post-Berman era, , eh, I couldn’t help feeling a little sentimental that it was ending, that’s all.
It’s actually not unlike both Fullmetal Alchemist shows: One’s canonical and the other’s an alternate re-telling, but I enjoy them both.
@11: The only real element from the TNG Relaunch that McCormack was able to salvage was Worf succeeding Riker as Picard’s XO following Nemesis. Beyond that, it diverges from Death in Winter pretty quickly.
@9/Mr. Magic: In addition to what Keith said, it’s an error to compare Star Trek to Star Wars, because they are not the same thing and they have never done things in exactly the same way. (They aren’t even the same genre — Star Wars is space fantasy, not science fiction — but that’s another discussion.) Comparing the Pocket novel continuity to the Star Wars Expanded Universe is both incorrect and unfair, because unlike the EU, Star Trek tie-ins have never had a single unifying continuity. There have been a few ongoing continuities here and there — a selection of the ’80s novels, various ongoing comic series, and of course the post-2000 novel continuity — but they have always, always existed alongside other tie-ins that were not in continuity with them. The Pocket novelverse has never encompassed 100 percent of the novels — most of the TOS books have remained essentially standalones, while there have been overtly out-of-continuity side series like the Shatnerverse and the Crucible trilogy — and it’s existed alongside other separate continuities such as Star Trek Online, the IDW comics (which aren’t even all in continuity with one another), Star Trek Adventures, and the Titan Books “nonfiction” series by David A. Goodman (including Federation: The First 150 Years and the various autobiographies).
It’s flattering that you like the novelverse so much, but it’s really unfair to all the other equally valid tie-ins to treat the novels as the only tie-in continuity. They’re just conjectures, interesting fantasies for your recreation — the same as everything else, including canon. The idea that there has to be only one “right” version of an imaginary universe is nonsensical. None of this is real. We’re just trying to entertain you.
As far as the state of the novel continuity, it’s only the stuff set post-Nemesis that’s been overwritten. It might be possible to “keep” the earlier stuff and just branch off in a different direction.
Mr. Magic: Everything ends. Always. :)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@14:
“Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I’m gonna miss you. You had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end.”
Sorry not sorry. :D
Well played, Mr. Magic. Well played.
—KRAD
@16:
Heh, you’re too kind, Keith.
But the moment I read your comment @14, I just couldn’t resist. ;)
A galaxy where people live? All I saw were Starfleet, Romulans and ex-Borg. No Klingons, no Cardassians, no Ferengi – no sense that there was any kind of galactic community at all. The collapse of a major Alpha Quadrant power is just a thing that gives Picard some angst and makes the Federation a Brexit analogue.
@13 – “The idea that there has to be only one “right” version of an imaginary universe is nonsensical.”
Which is exactly why the idea of a Prime Universe is ridiculous. One universe that everything needs yo be wedgied into is a dumb concept for a show that introduced time travel in it’s 7th produced episode (4th aired) and a parallel universe in it’s 40th produced (33rd aired).
Even the Abrams reboot was supposed to be a clean slate and the retconned the idea that they shared a past by the third movie. And Picard retconned it again with it’s total reworking of the “supernova”. The Romulan sun would have been exhibiting signs of going nova for centuries. Why didn’t Spock notice it when he was on Romulus? Or Picard and Data? Just goes to show how one little “And I’ll upset this particular apple cart on my way out the door” moment can have consequences. Which Star Trek is particularly adept at either ignoring or retconning at will.
The beauty of the multiple ST continuities across various media and tie-ins is that there’s an in-universe explanation for their co-existence. Parallel universes and alternate timelines, anyone? Let the contradictions and canons and retcons flourish! It’s all good Star Trek fun. :)
@18/Deena: “A galaxy where people live? All I saw were Starfleet, Romulans and ex-Borg. No Klingons, no Cardassians, no Ferengi – no sense that there was any kind of galactic community at all.”
Keith didn’t mean species, he meant ordinary people. We didn’t just see Starfleet or the Romulan Imperial Fleet or the halls of government — we saw civilians. For the first time, the great majority of characters in a Trek series were civilians, or at least retired officers. We got glimpses of what the galaxy looks like for people who aren’t in the military or government, whether on Earth or Vashti or Freecloud or Nepenthe or wherever. We saw a side of the galactic community we’ve never seen much of before — the actual community part, on the level of individuals going about their lives rather than leaders and officers dealing with matters of interstellar importance.
For some reason the last few episodes of the series felt disjointed and rushed. I’m not sure how that happens for a streaming-first series that was first announced so long ago. Frakes mentioned on the after-show that when he directed his episodes he had not yet been asked to appear in the series as an actor. So there must have been something odd with the production schedule. It kind of shows in the way the plot seemed to get away from them at the end.
However — as with most Trek series, the first season will have its ups and downs. I’m still excited to see what happens.
Wow, didn’t realise Ann Magnuson used to be in Bongwater
It is refreshing to get a look from civilian perspectives. If only those perspectives weren’t so cliched and thoroughly ridden with angst. The cigar-chomping pilot with a troubled past; the addict with the troubled past; the badass action hero woman with a troubled past; the manic pixie science girl, soon to have a troubled past. And then there’s Picard, Riker and Troi haunted by the deaths of loved ones. And the Federation itself haunted by Mars and Romulus.
The problem isn’t the new perspectives. The problem is that all those perspectives are basically the same, not to mention being largely interconnected, causing the universe to feel quite small as a result.
@24: I’ll take that a step further – they’re perspectives that don’t belong in Star Trek to begin with. Even if you took DS9’s criticisms of the Federation as absolute truth (and, as Keith has repeatedly pointed out, doing so requires swallowing some Maquis-adjacent logic that doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny), the only world in which someone like Raffi or Rios makes sense is one where the Federation as a whole is basically Section 31: xenophobic, conspiracy-laden, amoral/immoral, self-centered. I never believed, not for one episode, that Raffi could have ever been a Starfleet officer. Maybe that’s me idealizing the future society Picard himself used to belong to… but it certainly had more to offer than this iteration does.
@25/Deena: That argument presumes that “the Federation as a whole” is a monolithic entity with no variation among its individuals. Which makes no sense for something so huge. What we’ve seen of the Federation is mostly Starfleet’s finest, the best and the brightest of the whole civilization — and even there we’ve seen some screwed-up sorts like Mark Jameson, Nick LoCarno, Nora Satie, Michael Eddington, and B’Elanna Torres. If people as noble and idealized as Picard are at one end of the bell curve, there must be some more rough-edged, dissolute types at the other end. That doesn’t make the whole civilization corrupt, it just makes it plausibly diverse.
Also, remember, the chain of events that screwed up the lives of Picard, Raffi, and Rios was all ultimately the fault of the Zhat Vash and Commodore Oh pursuing their fanatical war on synths. They were the ones who caused the synth attack that devastated Mars and ruined things for Picard and Raffi, and Oh was the one who gave the order that led to the tragedy in Rios’s past. Sure, as Picard said, the Federation made a mistake by letting itself give into the fear that the Zhat Vash induced in them. But they repented for it at the end, even if it was cursory and offscreen.
@25
Good point.
Regarding the darkness, I wonder if Chabon was in any way inspired by the movie Excalibur. The reason I bring this up, after recently watching it again, is the detail about the land becoming a dark wasteland when King Arthur is broken and depressed. Then when Arthur drinks from the Holy Grail and acknowledges the mistakes he’s made and then becomes rejuvenated, the land blooms with new life.
Of course, I’m not suggesting Picard’s well-being is literally tied to his universe, but I do find it an interesting parallel.
@26 – “If people as noble and idealized as Picard are at one end of the bell curve, there must be some more rough-edged, dissolute types at the other end.”
That’s the problem. Picard and Riker and the rest aren’t supposed to be one end of the curve, they’re supposed to be closer to the middle. More representative of humanity as a whole that these amazing icons that humanity has placed on gleaming pedestals.
But the longer a particular show within the franchise goes on, they keep elevating the status of the characters until they’re so far above the common citizen that they’re almost invisible from our perspective.
The rest of Starfleet ends up being shown as useless and the only people that can possibly solve whatever the problem is is our intrepid crew.
And, in the case of Raffi, even though we’re shown her failings, her alcoholism and drug addiction, they’re simply swept aside with nary a mention, as if telling JL Picard that she loves him is enough to cure her of whatever vices she had. Sorry, but locking your fridge so you can’t get the beer that’s inside there won’t cure you of alcoholism. It will simply make you seek out other sources when your will falters.
Even though Picard was basically an asshole to any number of people, all is forgiven because everyone is so in awe of him that they’re willing to forgive him literally anything.
@26/Christopher: Not monolithic, no – but one can certainly point to key values and ideologies the societies of Federation member worlds would be expected to adhere to. We know this, we saw Bajor’s application take five years (give or take a war). So Picard trying to sell me on the notion that Betazed or Vulcan – Vulcan – were just peachy letting millions of Romulans die? I just don’t accept that. I don’t know how we got from “Does Commander Data have a soul? I don’t know that he has; I don’t know that I have.” to “Hello plastic people.” I don’t know why I’m supposed to just accept that an ancient Romulan sub-sub-sub-secret society managed to do things Section 31, the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order never could. If this were some new, generic SF show starring Patrick Stewart it wouldn’t grind my gears nearly as much – it’d just be a cliche, unoriginal post-9/11 take on how governments are bad and everyone’s racist in the future. But that’s not Star Trek.
@29
I don’t so much have an issue with “Hello plastic people.” We’ve seen jerks in the Federation before. However, I do wish they had fleshed out those issues: Synth rights. Slavery. Sentience. The Soong legacy. Yeah, like a full, Romulan and Borg free sequel to “The Measure of a Man.” A courtroom drama instead of fleets facing off. Like something out of that Star Trek: The Next Generation show.
@30: That’s just it, though – jerks in the Federation didn’t just go unchallenged. Christopher brings up all those examples of human failures, but Nora Satie ended up disgraced, Nick Locarno was expelled from Starfleet Academy, Michael Eddington was arrested and imprisoned. Jerks didn’t thrive in TNG; and if they did in DS9, they didn’t do so for long (Gowron, Leyton, etc.)
Really, the problem I have with “Hello plastic people” is that no one else sees a problem with that. It’s a comment that passes without comment, and sets the stage for the ease with which the United Federation of Planets “bans” a legally-recognized lifeform.
I was excited for this show, as I am excited for all Star Trek shows. However, I found the plot so flimsy too many times for me to ignore. Also, the old characters (mainly Picard) seemed to be from a parallel reality.
The last episode was the worst of the season IMHO… magical McGuffin… Seven of Nine not stunning/killing killer Romulan sister immediately, but jumping into monologue mode instead… Bomb to destroy signal being attracted to Soji’s hand for some reason?…
So many face-palm moments…
@31
When you put it that way, I can’t argue. Those workers really were more Alien than Star Trek.
About the end of the TrekLit narrative, while I was as heartbroken as anyone, in hindsight I’m not sure all hope is lost.
Star Trek Online also has its own continuity that is irreconcilable with the official timeline (Data’s resurrection, Picard and Seven having worked together, Picard becoming an ambassador, etc), yet it is still ongoing, with new content apparently still in the pipeline.
It’s possible the TrekLit continuity could be rebranded (the Destiny Timeline? the Typhon Pact Timeline?) and salvaged in the future, presumably depending on the popularity of the books (though I have no idea if anyone who matters is tracking that data).
Keith– I didn’t really mind that the previous Treks took place in the past as I believe that there are worthwhile stories to tell in every era of Star Trek history, but I am glad that they are finally moving forward.
I’m surprised that you didn’t mention Kestra.
As for Agnes, Michael Chabon has already said that the La Sirena is still on course for deep space 12 where Agnes will turn herself in. Whatever plot gymnastics they use to keep her from going to prison, I have no idea.
@23– Before Bongwater, Ann Magnuson fronted a band called, and I kid you not, Vulcan Death Grip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73-oJya4q40&app=desktop
Full disclosure: While I never met Ann Magnuson, I’ve known her Vulcan Death Grip guitarist, Rudy Protudi of the Fuzztones, for 30 years(although, it’s been a bit of a spell since I’ve seen him).
@29/Deena: “So Picard trying to sell me on the notion that Betazed or Vulcan – Vulcan – were just peachy letting millions of Romulans die?”
Obviously Vulcan wasn’t, because they continued with the Red Matter project after the evacuation fleet was abandoned.
The Federation is a democracy, and that means its members hold a multiplicity of views all at once — and the same views don’t always win the debate every single time. As you can see clearly in the United States or Britain today, it’s possible for the sitting government of a democracy to make decisions that half or more of their population disapproves of fiercely. You don’t need unanimous popular support as long as you hold the legislative majority or control the executive branch. And a politically influential minority can wield disproportionate pressure to get its way, even when that goes against what the majority believes (for instance, a large majority of Americans support tighter gun control and health care reform).
In this case, as we were told in the first episode and as the novel The Last Best Hope depicted, a group of fourteen Federation worlds — established in the novel as younger, outlying colonies that resented the political dominance of the founding worlds — threatened to secede if the evacuation project wasn’t abandoned. Losing that many member worlds at once would’ve been a disaster for the Federation, so those worlds basically extorted the UFP government into doing what they wanted. Even though the majority probably still would’ve supported the relief efforts, the minority was able to get its way this time.
@30/JFWheeler: “I don’t so much have an issue with “Hello plastic people.” We’ve seen jerks in the Federation before.”
Yeah — if anything, TNG pretty consistently showed that people outside the Enterprise crew were less accepting of Data. There was Pulaski, there was Bruce Maddox, there was that surly first officer on the ship Data commanded in “Redemption II,” there was Admiral Haftel wanting to turn Lal into a guinea pig, etc. There was a lot of resistance to accepting androids as people, among those who hadn’t gotten to know Data the way the E-D crew had.
@31/Deena: “Really, the problem I have with “Hello plastic people” is that no one else sees a problem with that. It’s a comment that passes without comment, and sets the stage for the ease with which the United Federation of Planets “bans” a legally-recognized lifeform.”
If you accept the novel’s version of events, the synths on Mars weren’t even sentient. La Forge and Maddox were in charge of building them, and they made a point of not making them sentient, both because nobody knew how to, and because of the ethical issues raised in “The Measure of a Man.”
Even if you go just by the show, the thing to remember is that the Enterprise crew was supposed to be the Federation’s best and brightest — so the corollary is that there were others in the Federation who weren’t as great. The people in the Mars flashback were basically blue-collar working stiffs, not Starfleet officers trained to be open-minded and accepting of the new and alien.
@32/digrifter: “Also, the old characters (mainly Picard) seemed to be from a parallel reality.”
In a way, they are, because the reality they live in has changed massively in the 20 years since we saw them last. It would be unrealistic if they hadn’t changed along with it.
Yeah, I’m officially done with nu-Trek at this point. Beyond the scattershot plotting, the self-indulgent angst, the persistent pacing issues and the stubborn refusal to actually earn the story’s emotional beats, what really kills Picard for me is its treatment of the title character. I am sick to death of this deconstructionist nonsense where fan-favourite characters get dragged through the mud in sequels and spin-offs for the sake of short-term drama, or because the writers are simply too cynical to accept the presence of a hero. Whether it happens to Picard or Luke Skywalker or Atticus Finch or Cortana or the Grey Wardens, it’s always poorly executed drivel that condemns the audience for daring to become emotionally invested, and never holds up to scrutiny. (Flash fact: adding a few years and a few pounds does not justify a character assassination).
If nothing else, having to endure this half-assed Mass Effect rip-off has only strengthened my appreciation for the genuine article. For as terrible as the Mass Effect 3 ending was (even with the Extended Cut), and for all the missed opportunities of Andromeda, at least A) Mass Effect lets itself have fun every once in a while, mostly noticeably with the Citadel DLC for the third game, and B) the characters are, by and large, strong enough to carry the franchise through its worst moments. With nu-Trek, I’m stuck listening to Burnham’s endless pedantic monologues or watching a misanthropic junkie tell a man who’s saved the human race on multiple occasions to check his privilege. Why bother putting up with that when I can listen to Ashley Williams recite poetry, or hang out with space-bro Garrus, or have tea with Suvi, or get Legion’s perspective on the nature of synthetic life and Thane’s perspective on the soul, or watch Wrex elbow-drop a shuttle, or fall in love with Liara all over again? (Blue space waifu is best space waifu, fight me). If you enjoyed this show, then more power to you. Me? I have worthwhile science fiction stories to experience.
@37/Devin Smith: It’s not deconstructionist, it’s just how stories work. Fiction is not about success and happiness, it’s about how characters deal with crisis. There’s a reason “happily ever after” only comes at the end of a story — because if nothing ever goes wrong for them again, there’s no more story to tell. If you want to bring back a character whose story has ended, it can’t just be an exercise in cozy nostalgia. You need to put them back into crisis, back through the same kind of hell you put them through in the original story. (People complained about “Relics” mistreating Scotty, forgetting that TOS killed him at least once, subjected him to serious injury several times, and had terrible things happen to all his love interests. Fiction is about mistreating your characters.)
They give us a big emotional scene with Picard’s death … then walk it back by downloading him into a golem, thus creating functional immortality.
They give us a big philosophical scene where a quantum simulation of Data requests to die because mortality is fundamental to the human experience … then introduce functional immortality by downloading Picard into a golem.
The entire season’s plot is driven by The Admonition, which tells us that fear will inevitably cause mortal organic beings to exterminate synthetics when they realize that synthetics do not age and die … then they introduce functional immortality by downloading an organic consciousness into a synthetic body, giving organics an overwhelming incentive to create and preserve synthetics.
Stomping one’s own themes like this strikes me as an incredible failure in writing. Especially when all they had to do to avoid it was not kill Picard.
@36
True, though the difference with all the people you listed is that they developed a respect for Data in the end. Not so with the workers on Mars. It’s hard to learn anything by getting massacred like teenagers in a sci-fi horror movie.
And I would argue that even though those specific synths were developed to be simple robots without sentience, it still doesn’t speak well for the humans to treat them with disrespect. The synths still had detailed humanoid features, and it’s a bad habit to get into in a universe with a diversity of sentient humanoid beings. They really needed a lesson from Sonya Gomez in human to machine interaction.
@39/GJDitchfield: Except they had that whole scene establishing that they’d given the android the same life expectancy Picard would’ve had as a human if not for his brain defect. So no, not immortality.
And really, why do we always assume that androids and AIs would be immortal? The common science fiction conceit that technology is indestructible is completely at odds with the evidence of everyday life. How many cell phones have you gone through in your life? How many computers? How many cars? Most of our devices are significantly shorter-lived than we are. Machines break down even more easily than living bodies do. Okay, advanced machines could have self-repair systems, but living beings already have self-repair systems, and eventually the cumulative damage overwhelms them anyway. So there’s no real reason to expect artificial life forms to be any less mortal than biological ones.
@41/ ChristopherLBennett
Yes, but that was explicitly stated to be a choice they made. And when that synthetic body wears out, Picard can be transferred to another one. So yes, functional immortality.
Picard just had the best first season out of any Trek sequel series.
I understand that every Trek’s fate is to be hated by a vocal minority, but good lord some of these comments are head scratching.
@38 – The mistreatment of Scotty came at the hands of the crew. They stuck him in a room and expected him to stay out of the way. Thus is a man who suddenly found himself in an unexpected future, the one person he was expecting to survive with him has died and all the crew can do is complain about him. Even Troi didn’t bother to visit him to see how he was doing. It wasn’t an external cause of his trauma, the crew of the Entterprise were the ones doing it to him. The best Scotty could come up with was to get drunk by himself.
@39 – And they ignored the plot point that the Zhat Vash were RIGHT. There was a synthetic life form that was going to come and destroy all organic life. And the Federation showed that they were no better than the Zhat Vash when it came to rights for synthetics. And then the whole story was dismissed with a line of dialog. As if 14 years of being told that “synthetics are bad!’ was suddenly going to be reversed by the revelation that the ZV orchestrated the attack.
@37– who is the “misanthropic junkie” you are referring to? Raffi? If anything, Raffi cares too much about people. That’s why she’s a junkie in the first place.
J J Abrams is the worst thing that ever happened to anything.
I think Lindelof turned out to be the brains of the Lost operation.
His approach to Star Trek has been to turn it into Star Wars.
Fuck that noise.
I have been equally frustrated and captivated by Star Trek: Picard – so much so that when COVID kept me stuck at home I abandoned my TNG and VOY rewatches almost entirely (sorry KRAD, I just cannot deal with VOY seasons 1 and 2).
There is sooooo much good here; Jeri Ryan (whom I hated in VOY) is outstanding, I actually really like Rios and Legolas Elnor, though neither has been fully fleshed out as a character. Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis give career best performances and make me rue the end of the TNG era (even if Nemesis was awful). I do find Jurati a bit inconsistent, love Admiral Clancy and Bjayzl But…
I’m just not sold on Raffi; I’ve tried, but despite good acting I just don’t warm to the character. Narek and Oh are awful, bad acting and dull characters, and Brent Spiner’s involvement should have been minimised.
It does feel darker, grungier even, than most Treks; but Star Trek is often at its best when it is ‘on the edges’ of Gene Roddenberry’s vision. Completely agree about finally seeing the Romulan culture given the same treatment as the Klingons in TNG (and I guess DS9). This has been a strength, shaped by some superb acting. I do agree with KRAD though, it feels as if we have one plotline too many. TBH I am enjoying the synths and the Romulans, that should have been enough. The Borg elements feel, well, added in for fan consumption.
But Patrick Stewart, holding the crazy mess together, is always compelling viewing. And in these dark times, a story of redemption and forgiveness, and for the doing the right thing, should be comfort to us all…
Reference the novels, I’m going to both agree and disagree with the resident authors. Star Trek has always allowed completely conflicting plotlines / character developments to happily coexist (Spock is married, Spock is dead, Spock is a CO in his own right, Spock is Kirk’s wingman). Every non-canon production is a story set in the ST universe, it’s a fictional world and this ability for a cracking author (such as the ones seen on this forum) to go off and tell us a marvellous tale is one of the many reasons why Star Trek has held my affection since I was taken to see STVI by my father, aged nine. He, BTW, had COVID and has loved Discovery during his recovery.
But…and here’s the controversial part; I cannot but watch the EU now be out of kilter and offer a “serves you right”. I am an infrequent reader of ST fiction, I grew up with the old TOS and movie era pocket novels; the joy of these works was that you could ‘dip in’ whenever you liked. The post Nemesis novels some of which (coughs, Articles of the Federation cough) are awesome, some mediocre and some downright awful, seem to have one abiding obsession – promote galaxy shaping events and not care about the casual reader. I appreciate that this is a minority view, and there remains some wonderful writing, but you went too far in developing the galaxy and not enough on little, detailed, “today we’re in orbit of” type starship chugging around the galaxy adventures. I would love to pick up a random post Nemesis novel, but unless I have read “A Time To…” or “The Tyhphon Pact…” I won’t get the references and I’m going to be wasting my time. This makes me very sad.
@42/GJDitchfield: Except that Star Trek has long since established the existence of multiple technologies that could give people “functional immortality” — the transporter de-aging of “The Lorelei Signal,” Vulcan katra transfer, the consciousness transfer of “The Passenger,” the magic nanite healing of “Battle Lines” and “Mortal Coil,” etc. All of those things should’ve been game-changers to the whole concept of mortality, but they weren’t, because the writers chose to ignore their ramifications. There’s no reason to expect this to be any different than all those previous examples.
@46/pjcamp: “J J Abrams is the worst thing that ever happened to anything.”
Oh, right, because a movie you didn’t enjoy is so much worse than a deadly global pandemic. Check your hyperbole.
@47/le_jones: Our goal in the novels has always been to keep things accessible to the casual reader. Even in the midst of all the larger arcs, we try to ensure that any information the reader needs to follow the current story is provided within the book itself. Just because a story refers to previous events, that doesn’t mean you can’t understand it without having seen those events; my go-to example is the very first Trek story ever, “The Cage,” and its heavy dependence on the aftermath of the Rigel VII battle we didn’t see. For that matter, Picard does the same thing, basing its story on the unseen events of the previous 14 years and filling us in on what we need to know as it goes. By the same token, the goal in the novels has always been to make each individual tale understandable and enjoyable on its own with the larger continuity being a bonus for those who read more widely. We’re not actively trying to make the books hard to read; that would be counterproductive.
Also, could you please not use the term “EU” in talking about Trek tie-ins? It’s misleading. As I said before, Star Trek is not Star Wars and they don’t do things the same way. There has never been an “EU” in Trek. There has never been a single continuity meant to encompass all the tie-ins. There are just various separate “local” continuities within different subsets of the tie-ins, like the novels, Star Trek Online, etc. These continuities are optional, the result of the different licensees’ individual choice to build them, rather than the result of a top-down dictate to keep everything consistent as in Star Wars.
@46– cool story bro. JJ Abrams has nothing to do with picard.
pjcamp: JJ Abrams has absolutely nothing to do with Star Trek: Picard. Well, at least not directly — he brought Alex Kurtzman into the franchise by hiring him to cowrite his first two Trek movies, so there’s that. But still…..
le_jones: I reject your premise, because no novel based on Star Trek can possibly be completely standalone because it takes place in a universe that has already had a ton of other material thanks to nine separate TV series and a baker’s dozen of movies. Not every reader has an encyclopedic knowledge of Trek on screen, either — in fact, most don’t — and I don’t see why referring to events in an episode or movie that the reader may not remember is okay but referring to another novel is bad.
And Christopher’s point about “The Cage” is well taken. For that matter, the first several Star Trek: New Frontier novels referred to “the Grissom incident,” but it wasn’t until the seventh novel (Once Burned) that we found out what, exactly, happened on the Grissom.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@48/ChristopherLBennett
I agree with you, and I don’t think you’re disagreeing with me, but I’ll belabor my point a bit more. Star Trek has raised and dropped immortality before. That does not mean that they should keep doing it, particularly here. I still think that cancelling out the basis of the season’s plot and the biggest moments of the finale was weak writing.
As for “there’s no reason to expect this to be any different than all those previous examples”: I agree. But given Michael Chabon’s literary credentials, I had reason to hope for a more thought-out story.
@51/GJDitchfield: Anyway, I don’t agree that the potential exists for Picard to jump bodies again. This was portrayed as an experimental technology Soong was working on, and his line about the recent urgency he felt at doing so suggests that he’s dying. For unclear reasons, he evidently gave up his own chance at saving himself to help Picard, and since it was an experimental system, it’s uncertain he’ll be able to replicate it before he dies. So while there are certainly some loopholes in the idea, the impression I got was that it was likely to be a one-shot deal, like so many other forms of miraculous resurrection in Trek.
Anyway, Chabon’s literary credentials might be the problem. Being a good novelist is no guarantee of being an equally good TV writer, because it’s a very different exercise. Not only is it a lot more collaborative and subject to budgetary, logistical, and practical considerations that aren’t present in prose, but it’s generally a lot more rushed, with less time to work out detailed plots and do revisions. So someone used to the pace of novel writing might need more than one season to adjust to the pace of TV writing.
@49 & 50 – JJ Abrams destroyed Romulus which very much has to do with Picard. Apparently, the only motivation Nero could have for hating Spock was the destruction of his entire planet. Nothing less would have done. Or something.
Abrams was heading to a brand new universe and he blew up Romulus just because. He obviously wasn’t going to be returning to tell any stories about it. He had his eye on Star Wars. But he made a huge change to the universe on his way out the door without a backward glance.
@53:
JJ Abrams destroyed Romulus which very much has to do with Picard. Apparently, the only motivation Nero could have for hating Spock was the destruction of his entire planet. Nothing less would have done. Or something.
That’s actually something I liked about the Picard Season One backstory: It retroactively strengthened the 2009 film and Nero in particular.
I mean, the grieving survivor of a dead alien world and irrationally blaming the one man who did all he could…that’s all there in Abrams’ first film. And it’s great, dramatic stuff on paper. But the execution (and Eric Bana’s performance) left much to be desired.
However, with the revelations of Picard, we know now that the UFP pulled out of the evacuation and doomed the RSE. So now Nero’s hatred and desire to burn the UFP to the ground makes more sense, or at least we understand the root of that rage (and how Spock’s failure only added to the catastrophic missteps of his own government).
@54/Mr. Magic: I agree. The show did a great job building on the movie backstory, making it deeper and more plausible.
@55 – More plausible? A star going supernova so fast that it catches the inhabitants of one of it’s planets off guard? Supernovae don’t work that way, not matter how you look at it.
And why does Nero’s motivation need to be based on something so huge? Could he not feel the same need for revenge if Spock ran over his wife on Romulus? Oh right, everything these days has to be BIG! Big threats. Big motivations! Big, Big! BIG!
Everything is so big, if someone’s motivation isn’t liked to armageddon in some way, then it just feels unimportant.
56: “Oh right, everything these days has to be BIG! Big threats. Big motivations! Big, Big! BIG!”
Yeah, new Trek and their big doomsday scenarios by putting a planet at stake. Jesus Trek is out of line.
Star Trek 1: Earth might get destroyed.
Star Trek 2: Mad man trying to get weapon that can destroy a planet.
Star Trek 4: Earth might get destroyed.
thats just pre 1990s.
@57/M: Not to mention the multiple times TOS episodes started with the discovery that whole planets had been annihilated, just in the second season alone. There’s nothing new about stories having melodramatically elevated stakes, just as there’s nothing new about people assuming that things are new “these days” when they’ve really been the same way forever.
Good God, the negativity is so tiresome. If you hate it so much, just don’t watch.
All those other series, novels and games are widely available. ALSO… Virtually every complaint about post-’09 Trek could have applied to any of the other series as well.
@59/Travitt: “Virtually every complaint about post-’09 Trek could have applied to any of the other series as well.”
And has been. The same complaints crop up every time there’s a new Trek series, with tiresome predictability.
I like this new and old Jean-Luc Picard far better than the one in TNG… whom I also liked, but… well, he was almost always right, while this new one is far more layered. I could relate to him, but then I rarely find those almost-perfect “heroes” very relatable.
This season has had its problems, most notably trying to juggle too many storylis and ideas, then excuting many of them half-assed. I hope they will improve on this and also that they will pick up some loose threads in seson 2 (like Starfleet politics, synths.related and others, the Romulans within and outside of the Federation, AND, of course, a trial for Jurati… even though it will end with a lot of handwaving…)
I agree that Briones and even more so the Romulan siblings were a weak link, both in writing and acting.
I want to see more of Laris & Zhaban, Raffi, Rios, Seven, Admiral sheer-fucking-hubris Clancy and, of course, Jean-Luc!
Star Trek having BIG blockbuster sized stakes is nothing new, but having a constant string of BIG stakes can be exhausting (looking at you, Doctor Who). We already have a series, Discovery, that goes BIG every time with the entire galaxy or universe in danger. That’s fine, I guess. But how about some variety between series?
Star Trek Picard looked like it was going to be something different at first, a smaller, more contemplative study about aging and guilt for a beloved character — oh boy, here comes the fight scenes and the body horror and the ancient prophecy that will lead to the destruction of everything if we don’t act NOW, NOW, NOW. Wait, what’s that? An advanced artificial intelligence? This might be interesting. What could it know? What amazing, surprising thing can it teach us about the gulf between man and machine in that best of Star Trek traditions? Like, maybe at least an ironic twist or something? Oh… tentacles. Cool.
Look, all that sci-fi action hokum is usually fine, but when you have Patrick Stewart doing his Picard in winter act, why bother with it? You have an old man missing his friend. That’s all the story you need.
The standalone nature of previous Trek series really does cover for its sins.
We don’t judge TNG by Code of Honor or DS9 by Move Along Home.
We are more likely to think of “The Best of Both Worlds” or “The Visitor” before we think of ”Aquiel” or “Meridian.”
Try this thought exercise: Suppose you had to show TNG episodes to someone who just never watched. This person is picky, so you need to sell it. Which episodes of TNG are you showing this person? (Think) Now, how many of those episodes are from Season 1? If you have very few or 0, then maybe reflect on that before you gleefully rip Picard to sheads.
@57 & 58 – And exactly what percentage of TOS stories were about some planet being destroyed? Not every story has to be about the planet/Federation/galaxy/universe being in danger of utter and total destruction. And the thing about Nero is that we really don’t see why he picks Spock for his revenge. Sure, we get a line here or there but there’s no bond between them. But sure, “random miner decides to take revenge against Federation officer/Ambassador/unification leader because his entire planet is destroyed in a supernova that threatens the entire galaxy” is totally relateable.
The movies, which for the most part show that Trek works better as a TV series, naturally go BIG because that’s what the studio wants. Paramount wanted it’s own Star Wars and Trek was the closest thing they had. Imagine City on the Edge of Forever as a movie, only with action sequences and explosions.
Picard had a chance to do a more thoughtful, introspective story and yet we ended up at “Giant, evil synth space tentacles”.
@63
Well, for what it’s worth, I would show that person “The Big Goodbye” and “Duet.” Every season of every episodic series has its strong or mediocre or weak episodes. But Star Trek Picard isn’t an episodic series. This was pitched as a “ten-hour movie,” and unfortunately they still felt the need to hold to the conventions of blockbuster movies for whatever reason. Trying to attract the action/adventure crowd to this story of elderly ennui…?
Having said that though, I still appreciate that the BIG fleet battle did not materialize and was defused with a Picard speech. That was really nice, as were the Picard and Data scenes. It’s not a wholly terrible, unwatchable season, I don’t think. I just wish they had found their way to those reunion scenes more gracefully than end times galactic squid Romulan melodrama.
With the supernova, we have been given hints in _The Last Best Hope_ that the supernova of the Romulan star appears to have been artificially triggered, that it is inexplicable by normal processes.
Will this be explored in the show? Who knows?
Agreed that the 2009 movie was implausible in depicting a surprise supernova. I do think that there can be creativity in trying to come up with explanations for questionable things.
@66 – Except nobody has ever mentioned the implausibility of the “supernova”, not in the movie nor in Picard. Spock talks about it threatening the entirety of the galaxy without a peep about how it should never have happened. It’s treated like the supernovas in The Empath and All Our Yesterdays, something that happens to stars with habitable planets. While that’s in keeping with the spirit of TOS, you’d think that as the franchise progressed, they’d get at least a little better about using real science.
Sure, it’s always going to have the Sci-Fi science like warp drive, transporters, cross-species alines and the like. All the more reason to work to make the actual science as grounded as possible.
Which leads to another problem with Picard. What’s with the “magical, wish powered, can fix anything synth arm knife”? You’ve got a small, pocket sized tool that can literally fix a starship simply by wishing for it to be fixed. Did anyone think to use it on Picard? Simply wish for his brain abnormality to go away? Could it resurrect the dead? Just how powerful is this thing anyway and why aren’t they replicating them by the starship full?
@67– the “imagination tool” actually reminded me of a very advanced version are the Exo Comps, minus the whole imagination thing.
The Big Stakes plotting could be lazy or incompetent writing. Jane Austen could make us care about the personal happiness of characters living rather limited 19th c. lives in small villages or provincial towns where nothing big ever happens. Granted Miss Austen was a genius but while classic Trek had it’s share of planetary crises and threats to the federation it had more episodes where the stakes were the safety of the Enterprise, or a character’s career was on the line. With an actor like Patrick Stewart and a beloved character like Picard a quiet tale of him adjusting to life without command and old age could have been riveting. With carefully crafted writing.
@62 “Look, all that sci-fi action hokum is usually fine, but when you have Patrick Stewart doing his Picard in winter act, why bother with it? You have an old man missing his friend. That’s all the story you need.”
This! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy this season for the most part and some of the characters (Raffi, Kestra in particular) are already among my favorites in Trekdom, but I remember when I heard about the concept of this series, I expected it to be slower and more contemplative. Yet even from the very first episode, there were cries for less exposition more action! I don’t think there’s any way around the fact that some bridges have already been burned, and CBS thinks that it needs needs frenetic plotlines and all the usual accoutrements of action movies in order to maintain viewership of their targeted demographics. And they may be right.
As for me, it’s no coincidence that my favorite moments of the series are about character interplay, relatively unadorned with gadgetry or…. tentacles. And to this point, I think they have left the talent of Sir Patrick Stewart relatively untapped. I can’t recall any scenes that have depended on his nuance and skills as an actor. Anyone who looks like him could have done this sort of grunt work.
Picard is a natural introvert. Suppose after his retirement he gradually became more and more reclusive, losing touch with old friends. Then he gets his diagnosis of an ultimately fatal brain disease and decides to get out and reconnect with those old friends before it’s too late. Pretty much everybody he meets has heard of Jean-Luc Picard but thought he died years ago. It becomes a running gag as he reengages with the outside world. The series is about him not only seeing old friends but making new ones and getting involved in their problems. Couldn’t that have been interesting?
I was perfectly satisfied with this series and am certainly looking forward to Adventures in the 25th Century aka Season 2 – and one would also like to address the concerns of those more worried about past works in various mediums being ‘invalidated’ by present TV canon: “The Multiverse means it’s all True SOMEWHERE.”
That’s my theory, at least (Mr Bennett can doubtless explain at length it’s gross scientific flaws) and I heartily recommend it to you; One finds it very soothing! (-:
Anybody else have Frank Sinatra playing in their head?
It was a nice first season, but it could have been so much better. The things I appreciated the most were the Data/Picard interactions, the Romulan culture being expanded, and Hugh and the xBs. I need to see more of those things.
@6 – Joe: They’re not wearing Starfleet commbadges, those are La Sirena commbadges.
@30 – JFWheeler: I’d like to see a Trek show like that.
@35 – Steven: Chabon is no longer the showrunner, so it’s no guarantee that they will head to DS12 next season.
I’ve only had a chance to read about 2/3 of the comments, so apologies in advance if I’m repeating something that’s already been brought up.
Overall, I liked this season, though I’ve got some problems with it. And there are some pretty huge dangling questions that I doubt will be addressed, just because they’re part of the series’ foundation. Like, why did Soji and Dahj need to have false memories in order to do their mission (whatever that was, exactly)? If Soji had known the truth about herself all along, she wouldn’t have accidentally given away the location of their planet. And why was Maddox on the run? He started from a secret and secure home base, so I’m not clear on what prompted him to expose himself.
Still, it was good to see Patrick Stewart back in his signature role, and having rediscovered his full Picardness. (Though I too would have liked has the robot overlords shown up and turned off everyone’s weapons in classic Trek advanced-species fashion.). I hope that next season further explores the characters’ recoveries (Rafi’s addiction and relationship with her son, Rios’s PTSD, Jurati’s PTSD and penance), and gives more for at least Elnor to do. (I’d take a maternal relationship between Rafi and Elnor as a replacement for her relationship with her son.)
It would be neat if Season 2’s overarching plot doesn’t have anything to do with the characters specifically, like it’s just a plot they stumble into or something, just to change up the pace a bit.
—And
It’d be nice if Raffi “adopts” Elnor.
I had intended to, as I have been with Discovery, write a post about the tie-in books and comics for Picard, but aside from the prequel novel Last Best Hope by Una McCormack and the prequel comic book Countdown, which were reviewed on this site by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro and Ryan Britt, respectively, no Picard tie-ins have been announced.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
This is a brilliant summary! I couldn’t put my finger on what was making the show as interesting as it was, and I think it’s that as you said, there is new material! Also pitties getting positive screen time outside of terrible reality TV shows is incredibly needed!
I actually found this show to be pretty awful all round. A generic, poorly written, poorly structured show, which sabotaged every little “arc” and “story thread” it brought up, resolved them all in the most hacky ways possible, and which repeatedly veered off in random directions like an ADD-inflicted teenager. This is a show seemingly written by ten different people locked in different rooms, their episodes stitched together by yet another stranger.
And of course the level of deus-ex-machinas in the final episode were downright insulting. Jeeze, could an episode be more contrived? Why did Riker warp away when there’s a Borg cube filled with reclamation project scientists in need of help? Not to mention his sickly ex captain? How did Jurati know how to use the magical technology device? Why did the Romulans not torpedo the planet? Why did-
Well, one can go on and on.
We were promised serious, serialized, grown up Trek writing. We got a space tentacles, hand-waving, silly space armadas, mustache twirling villains and cartoon writing. With the fiascos that were JJ Trek and Discovery, we expected Picard to finally offer good writing. Somehow, it got worse.
@76 Andy Holman
Yeah, and why choose to send the set of androids who look exactly like one of the two androids who made first contact? Their mission was to observe society and intelligence organizations, and report back via microsleep – I feel like that could’ve been achieved via technical skill more easily than it could be via in person espionage.
@81/Transceiver: Yeah, but they were sent by Bruce Maddox, who’s a cyberneticist, not a trained intelligence operative. So maybe he just didn’t think his plan through very well.
One possible consideration is that maybe Dahj and Soji weren’t very good at lying. They’re inheritors of Data’s neural structure, and Data was very truthful and guileless, so maybe Maddox felt they couldn’t pull off a successful deception unless their memories were suppressed and they really believed they were human. Although the obvious counterpoint to that is that Sutra was quite capable of deception and guile.
@80: Wholeheartedly agree. Even if the actual content of the story was any good, it would still suffer tremendously thanks to those pacing and structural issues.
Well, the show just makes me sad. Not really what I need more of in life, really. TOS and TNG inspired me and made me happy, and this just makes me sad. Not saying its bad or anything, but that is just how it makes me feel. Best wishes to those who enjoy it!
LBennett said: “So maybe he just didn’t think his plan through very well.”
Come on, you’re a writer. I’ve read your books. Be honest: it’s the writers who hadn’t thought the season through.
This is a show in which Picard has a chateau full of dead Romulans, but doesn’t think to show them to Starfleet, let alone screenshot them as evidence.. A show in which the second episode introduces technology which allows one to reconstruct the past – including whole conversations! – but which neglects to use the same tech to sweep areas where Romulans turned up on Earth, for yet more evidence to give to Starfleet.
A show which promises to deep-dive issues of Romulan culture and various refugee problems, only to instantly handwave them away (“The synth ban is over!”) or ignore them entirely (“Politics is boring!”). A show in which Seven of Nine pops up randomly at the most contrived moments – let’s be honest, there’s a Voyager novelist working on the show who wants to shoehorn Seven wherever she can – and then disappears until our attention-spans cry out for guns.
A show in which Rios magically has connections to the synth twins (via his ex captain), in which Riker can commandeer a fleet at the drop of a hat (an inactive office supersedes various admirals and active captains?), in which Seven ridiculously runs in to Picard who happens to be enroute to her lover/nemesis, in which the scientists on the Borg reclamation project all disappear, in which Elnor happens upon Seven’s magical communicator, in which Seven somehow beams on board a heavily shielded and defended Borg cube surrounded by a Romulan fleet, in which an undercover Vulcan/Romulan in Starfleet gives up her position to nonsensically lead a giant fleet, a fleet cartoonishly huge but which belongs to a “secret organisation” belonging to a “crippled Empire”. A show in which a fundamentalist sect forgets to torpedo a synth compound they believe will kill all organic life. A show in which the characters forget that shutting down a beacon does not negate the fact that Super Synths now know your location. A show which thinks that “two moons being in the sky at a particular moment” means that a planet “must therefore only have two moons”. A show in which Jurati stumbles upon a “Imagination Device” (and knows how to use it!) at precisely the moment she needs to holo-project a 200 ship fleet. A show which kills a character after said character gets a lecture on the importance of death by Data – Data who is somehow aware of events outside his quantum simulation – only to bring him back as a robot moments later, a dramatically inert bit of writing.
One can go on and on. It’s an endless series of ridiculous decisions. I suspect Kurtzman forced his writers to do things which they would have otherwise preferred not to do, thereby cluttering the project. I suspect all of the show’s writers wrote in a bubble and then haphazardly made attempts to connect their episodes together. I suspect that given full creative control, Chabon would have written nothing remotely like this. It’s an incredibly poorly thought out show. And what’s sad is that it’s pilot promises to tackle such interesting material. Instead we end with fisticuffs on a gangway, robot Picard and space tentacles. The show just becomes so hilariously trashy.
@85 – holy crap! I actually enjoy the show, but that was an epic rant! >golfclap<
@85: Damn, very well done. One further point I’d add onto your list is how the heroes let Soji walk without consequence despite her attempt to commit galactic genocide by summoning the knockoff Reapers. No doubt it’s because I’m an awful colonialist mansplainer, but deliberately trying to exterminate every sentient species in the galaxy based on the actions of a few people isn’t the sort of thing the heroes should shrug off with barely a word. Hell, at least Saren was indoctrinated by the Reapers, what’s Soji’s excuse?
The last episode killed all enthusiasm for this show for me. I just couldn’t buy the endless list of contrivances and comic book tropes. I read that Chabon initially wished to make a low-key show about Picard rummaging about on his vineyard and on Earth. Seems like a much better idea for a show. As would a relatively serious “deep dive” into the Romulan Refugee problem, a topic that could sustain an entire season, sans the aforementioned comic book tropes.
I want to see a spin-off with Kestra and Rupert Crandall where they cruise around the galaxy having Rick and Morty style adventures in Crandall’s ship, The Inside Straight.
@krad has gotten soft. To revisit DeCandido’s scathing review of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,“This crew deserved a better sendoff than to be portrayed as racist relics who blithely commit horrid acts.”
At issue in that critique were two scenes: Kirk’s exclamation of “let them die” in lamentation for the death of his son by the Klingons and Spock’s use of a forced mindmeld of Valeris (which DeCandido refers to as “rape”). Nevermind we see a mindmeld initiated here without prior consent (though it is *eventually* granted when a fellow crewmember objects). Indeed, nearly every episode of Star Trek: Picard portrays our crew as “racist relics who blithely commit horrid acts.” Seven of Nine forcibly possesses (in old DeCandido parlance, “rapes”) the collective sacrificing dozens or hundreds of lives in one largely pointless scene; in other, Seven ponders the weighty implications of euthanasia for a handful of seconds before shooting a phaser into the brain of her own surrogate son (this occurs after we are treated to a recreation of the movie “Saw”); in more than one scene, Seven violently slaughters her weakened opponents in an act of vengeance. That Kirk and friends were “relics” in Trek VI received scorn; here, Picard is a true relic subject to dismissive vulgarity, scorn, and abuse by a host of friends and foes alike – “Shut the f**k up!” While in earlier episode, Seven “mercy killed” Icheb, Data, a relatively young android plausibly poised for eventual reconstruction, asks for death. And Picard, within the span of two minutes, agrees and permanently erases the consciousness of his lifelong friend. Picard himself is “resurrected” – or more accurately, robo-cloned – with no ethical or moral debate by the crew. Having expressed no prior wish to have his memories downloaded and forcibly placed in an android body, Soong and Jurati nonetheless assemble their Frankenstein’s monster. Picard 2.0 quickly moves on from the horrific implications that the “real” Jean Luc is dead. All is swiftly forgiven for Soji (temporarily) opening a rift to summon an apocalyptic AI and Jurati’s murder of Dr. Bruce Maddox and their assemblage of ragtag has-beens, alcoholics, and serial killers warps into space. “Engage!”
We are left with a confusing meditation on the benefits of electing assisted suicide? Or to trust your instincts that “enemy races” will always be proven sneaky and evil in the end? Perhaps the message is that death is a beautiful and natural part of human existence… except when you plan to make a season 2?
Why are pretending this is the same franchise anymore? Sharing no similarity in tone or style or substance, with legacy characters no longer recognizable to the audience, with an emphasis on convoluted, season-spanning narrative puzzles, it scarcely even pretends to share the same universe. Hell, the showrunners even seem embarrassed to put characters in the red, blue, and gold uniforms (it might clash with the muted, angsty black and grey color palette). I’ll end with yet one more DeCandido quote from that Undiscovered Country review: “It’s a horrid act, a despicable violation of a person, and one that should never have been committed by people we have two-and-a-half decades of seeing as heroes up to this point.”
Agreed. We shouldn’t have had to witness the shameful dismemberment of this franchise. Yet Kurtzman and co. delivered exactly that. Over and over and over again for ten episodes.
“Shameful dismemberment of this franchise.” Suuuuure.
It’s funny. Even though they’re very different shows mostly created by different people, I feel almost exactly the same about the first seasons of Discovery and Picard after rewatching both of them for the first time. Both opened strongly, then spun their wheels for a bit while the rest of their pieces got put into place. When they finally got going they were really enjoyable, largely thanks to their talented casts, and both ended with finales that weren’t entirely satisfying. Neither had episodes I actually disliked, but no single episode from either season felt like it deserved full marks, either. However, both of them are pretty good seasons of television.