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| Picard and the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation, back on the bridge of the Enterprise-D. |
THOUGHTS ON SEASON THREE:
In its first two seasons, Star Trek: Picard carefully balanced TNG-era nostalgia against being a new show with an identity of its own. I had my issues with the series, specifically with Season Two, but this balance was something the writers handled extremely well.
In Season Three, Picard goes in a different direction. This season is less the conclusion to Picard and more Star Trek: The Next Generation - Epilogue. In theory, this should leave me feeling a bit disgruntled. I can always re-watch TNG, and I sometimes do rewatch the better episodes. In theory, I far prefer to see something new.
In practice, however, Season Three turns out to be by far the best season of what's been a rather uneven series.
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| Fears for his family make Geordi reluctant to help his old captain. |
AN ENSEMBLE PIECE:
In my Season Two overview, one of my top wishlist items was a hope that the returning TNG characters would not be exactly as they were when that series wrapped up. Happily, I get my wish. The characters are recognizably the same people, but the passage of time and the lives they've led have changed them in ways that are believable and often interesting.
Geordi is a father, and his protectiveness toward his two daughters informs his actions. Riker is more confident in his own decision making; while he respects Picard, he no longer automatically defers to him. Worf has taken a philosophical turn; he's not quite a pacifist (he's literally introduced killing bad guys), but he's more thoughtful than in the past. Beverly Crusher has transformed the most, her twenty years of protecting Jack having made her fierce and assertive in a way that wasn't often true in TNG - and Gates McFadden seems to thoroughly enjoy playing this new side to her personality.
Inevitably, some characters get more focus than others, but everyone gets something significant to do. It helps that the season re-introduces the cast gradually. Beverly and Riker appear as early as the first episode, and Worf enters the action in Episode 2. It isn't until the second half of the season that Geordi and Data receive anything more than a name-check, though, and it isn't until the final three episodes that Deanna gets more than a cameo. This allows each returning regular to get a reasonable amount of focus when they appear without leaving them competing for attention. It also helps to keep the narrative fresh, with the overall dynamics changing with each reintroduction.
Finally, I have to applaud the story making a plot point out of Picard's synthetic body, with the corpse of his original body forming a major part of the changelings' plan. It's not quite what I wanted to see. I still think it was a missed opportunity to not explore Picard's feelings about being transferred to a synthetic body. His greatest fear and shame was his past assimilation by the Borg, and now he's ever-so-slightly not quite human; that remains something that both he and the other characters should have reacted to.
But at least this season uses that misjudged plot turn as a major part of its story. I continue to wish more had been done with it... but I fully expected Season Three to just repeat Season Two in making one or two references and nothing more, so I was glad to see something of substance done.
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| Vadic (Amanda Plummer) harbors hatred that can't be reasoned with. |
THE KID, THE VILLAIN, AND THE DIP**** FROM CHICAGO - NEW CHARACTERS:
Season Three offers three significant new characters: Jack, Picard's son; Vadic, the changeling leader, and Liam Shaw, captain of the USS Titan. All three characters end up working, though not to the same extent.
JACK:
The well-worn "reunion movie" tropes of the old lead having a son/daughter ready to take the mantle is one that rarely works. It's never been what viewers want. They didn't tune into a revival of an old series to watch the son or daughter of the character they loved. It doesn't help that, in most cases, the kid characters are either insufferable or faded carbon copies of the old leads.
Jack largely sidesteps this trap. First, he's a genuinely well-written character. He's not a carbon copy of Picard, but neither is he self-consciously different. His swagger carries an echo of the young Picard who got into a near-fatal brawl with a Naussican. However, the surface cockiness is convincingly mixed with just the right amounts of both resentment and insecurity.
Also, Jack is an important part of the season, but he's firmly part of the supporting cast. His frank conversations with Picard develop him as a character, but the focus is kept on Picard and his reactions. Because of this, Jack's screen time never feels like it's coming at the expense of the old regulars. It helps that actor Ed Speleers does an excellent job of bringing the character to life.
VADIC:
Amanda Plummer's Vadic is the most prominent villain for the bulk of the season. When she's introduced, she is in a position of power, her ship clearly outmatching Picard and the Titan. She presents a genial front, speaking softly in an exaggeratedly sweet Southern drawl, even as it's clear that she revels the thought of violence. She seems to be having great fun pursuing the starship, and she plays with the humans like a cat with a mouse, letting the Titan run free just enough to enjoy the thrill of pouncing on it all over again.
This is all enjoyable villainy, and Amanda Plummer has a whale of time chomping on scenery, but there doesn't seem to be much depth beyond "villain." Episode 7, Dominion, changes that, with a well-scripted and wonderfully acted confrontation between Vadic on one side and Picard and Beverly on the other. In this scene, Vadic reveals all the hatred she's fostered for humanity - and as we glimpse her backstory, that hate becomes understandable. At that point, we comprehend why she is so sadistic and angry.
None of which makes her less villainous, it should be noted. In fact, once Picard knows what drives her, he gives up on trying to negotiate. Vadic's hatred runs so deep that reason is impossible.
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| Capt. Shaw (Todd Stashwick) takes great pleasure in pointing out a few less-than-shining moments of Picard's and Riker's careers. |
CAPT. SHAW:
I hated Shaw on sight. With the benefit of hindsight, it's clear that the writers wanted me to have that reaction. Shaw was meant to come off as a typical "pompous bureaucrat," with later revelations changing that perception. Even in hindsight, though, I think his early scenes are overwritten. The Shaw of the season premiere is pointlessly antagonistic and punchably smug. Rudeness and smugness are present in the rest of the season, but never again to that same extent.
Starting with Episode Two, he emerges as a three-dimensional character. He's still adversarial to Picard, but his points have validity. Once Picard reveals that Jack is his son, Shaw stops arguing, resigning himself to the battle to come. Episode Four is both the season's and the series' best installment - and its single best scene belongs to Shaw, as he recalls his brush with "Locutus of Borg" during the Battle of Wolf 359. The scene explains his initial disdain for Picard, and it also shows the survivor's guilt that's left him entirely willing to be seen as the jerk by his own crew.
By the second half of the season, he has become a full ally to Picard. He continues to argue with the regulars, but it's mostly to point out inconvenient truths, from the unintended consequences of some of Picard's and Riker's past heroics to the potential need for Seven of Nine to sacrifice people for the greater good: "You are a Starfleet officer. You don't have the luxury to only make choices that feel hunky-dory."
Actor Todd Stashwick leans fully into the character's abrasive nature, but (Episode One aside) he also shows the character's intelligence and the emotional turmoil from his past. A layered performance combines with good writing, making Shaw into the most memorable of all of Star Trek: Picard's original characters. I'd happily watch a full series about the self-described "dip**** from Chicago."
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| Picard is reunited with Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes). |
ARCS WITHIN A BIGGER STORY - SEASON STRUCTURE:
One reason why Season Three works better than the previous two seasons is its structure. Instead of pulling a single story across ten episodes, the story is divided into smaller arcs. This keeps the story from feeling overstretched, a common problem with seasons of streaming shows, by allowing the overall focus to change regularly.
The first four installments form a Star Trek action thriller, with the Titan evading Vadic inside a nebula. I worried that this setup couldn't sustain a full season. Then Episode Four did something I hadn't expected: It resolved the situation, ending that arc in an entirely satisfying manner while still leaving loose ends for future episodes.
This continues through the rest of the season. The middle episodes shift to a conspiracy story, with the changeling presence within Starfleet leaving the crew with no allies. Episodes Seven and Eight form a two-parter that's dominated by a hostage crisis. Episodes Nine and Ten end the story with another two-parter, this one pitting Picard and his crew against the Borg (again).
The structure works well. Each smaller arc feeds the overall story, so it always feels as if the season is building. At the same time, each arc receives some form of resolution, so that it rarely feels as if the show is just wheel-spinning.
Which isn't to say that every element works perfectly...
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| The Enterprise targets the heart of the Borg Cube. |
A BAIT AND SWITCH THAT DOESN'T ENTIRELY SATISFY:
The season does an excellent job of establishing the changelings as a threat. The tension between Picard and Ro is partially because of their past, but each is also testing the other, wondering if they are who they claim to be. This is echoed later in the season, in the outstanding Seven/Tuvok scene, with Seven uncertain if her old Vulcan friend can be trusted.
The season consistently shows that the changelings' infiltration of Starfleet is significant. The result is that Picard and his crew have almost nobody they can actually trust, leaving them on the run and with no allies as the culmination of the enemy plan draws near.
...And then the final two episodes drop the changelings almost entirely in favor of Borg Invasion Attempt #360. Once the Borg are reintroduced, the changelings cease to be relevant to the story at all. Yes, Vadic is defeated - but by this point, we've already seen that changelings have enough control in enough places to be formidable without her. Where did all of those changelings go, and why don't they do anything after the Borg attack fails?
I don't actually mind the show bringing the Borg back. Overused though they are (the Borg are invoked in three out of three Picard seasons), they're still the TNG villain with the greatest personal connection to Picard, and their connection to Jack is nicely set up and revealed. But the show needed to keep the changelings active in the final two parts. Alternatively, they could have just made this a Borg story from the start... something that could have been entirely doable by replacing the changeling infiltration with Borg assimilation. Season Two already showed Jurati being assimilated pyschologically, with no immediate physical signs; that could have used as a template for an "invisible" Borg infiltration in Season Three.
As it stands, the changelings are built up as a threat, and then they're transformed into little more than an afterthought - something I can't help but feel disappointed by.
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| Picard and his old crew enjoy a final game of poker. |
IN CONCLUSION:
My frustration with the dropped changeling arc notwithstanding, this season is an excellent ending, both as the final season of Star Trek: Picard and as a postscript to Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The season makes good use of its cast, including finding strong roles for characters who weren't well used by TNG, and it features fine performances all around. It also benefits from solid structure, with the mini arcs maintaining freshness and energy throughout - something that I was extremely happy to see after the structural/pacing mess that was Picard's second season.
I doubt we'll see these characters again beyond a potential cameo or two, and I would be very surprised if we saw them all together again. So, most of all, I'm happy that Picard's third season gives a satisfying close to the TNG crew members' respective stories.
Previous Season: Season Two
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